The Home Information Pack duties apply to the person responsible for marketing the home - this will usually be an estate agent.

The main duty is to have a Pack that complies with the Regulations in your possession or under your control whenever marketing activity occurs, including marketing activity carried out before the property is actually put on the market.

Certain documents must be in the Pack when marketing starts, but marketing with an incomplete Pack may take place if it is expected that some of the documents will become available within 28 days and all reasonalbe efforts are made to obtain them as soon as possible. This covers the following documents:

• Searches
• Leasehold and Commonhold information
• Evidence of Title (for unregistered properties only)

You are under a duty to provide a copy of the Pack (or any part of it) to a potential buyer who asks for it. The only exceptions to this rule are where it is believed that:

• The person making the request could not afford the property in question.
• The person making the request is not really interested in buying the property.
• The potential buyer is not a person to whom the seller would wish to sell the property.

However, this does not allow the responsible person to unlawfully discriminate against anyone.

A reasonable charge to cover copying and postage costs can be made for providing copies.

You will be expected to make sure that the right documents are included in the Pack, but the legislation on Home Information Packs is not intended to provide that the seller or the seller's estate agent should be held responsible for the accuracy of the information contained in documents that have been provided by others. The penalty provisions recognise this, and will not apply so long as the seller or the seller's estate agent has reasonable cause to believe that the document does comply with the Regulations.

From 1 August 2007, estate agents marketing with Home Information Packs will have to belong to an independent Redress Scheme approved by the Secretary of State. You can find out more on our page on Complaints Procedure. For details of how estate agents can join the scheme together with downloadable forms, see the Ombudsman for Estate Agents.

Before 1 August 2007
Properties that are already on the market on 1 August 2007 will be exempted from the duty to have a home information pack until 31 December 2007 if marketing continues throughout this period (whether under the same or a different estate agent).

Penalties and enforcement
The Pack duties will be enforced by local authority Trading Standards Officers. They will be able to give advice and warnings, as well as issuing penalty notices. The fixed penalty has been set at £200 initially, and can be repeated if a breach is repeated. Marketing a property without a Home Information Pack, or an incomplete Pack, will render an estate agent liable to a penalty notice.

Estate agents should also be aware that a breach of the Pack duties will be treated as an 'undesirable practice' under the Estate Agents Act and must be notified to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as such. An estate agent who deliberately flouts the Pack duties will therefore risk a banning order from the OFT.