E state agent Spicerhaart, is calling on estate agents to boycott Home Information Packs (HIPs), following the government’s decision not make the Home Condition Report (HCR) mandatory.

Paul Smith, chief executive of Spicerhaart said: "The government talks of a dry run but without the mandatory inclusion of HCRs I cannot see how this is going to be of any value – they will be leaving out the essential ingredient of the Hip.

"The only hope the government now has of salvaging this mess is to announce a future date when HCRs must become mandatory – without this, the packs may as well be scrapped as they will offer no added value to the consumer, providing nothing more than what is already mandatory in our current system.

"No-one will be policing the implementation of Hips and so we are calling on all estate agents to rise up against the government and refuse to co-operate in producing packs on 1 June next year.
"The whole initiative, which offered great promise and huge benefits to the consumer, is now a shambles that holds no benefit. As a result we will no-longer be supporting this failing government initiative and we are calling for the support of other estate agents to protect the consumer from this unnecessary and costly farce."