HOME Information Packs (HIPS) are sneaking up on the legal profession and are about to pounce.
If solicitors and conveyancers are not properly prepared they risk losing control of their business and relying instead on work provided by panel managers with little or no experience within the industry.
HIPS will become mandatory for all home sellers to supply to potential buyers with effect from 1 June 2007, so to put your head in the sand is not an option.
The Home Information Pack is, after all, essentially a legal pack and the opportunity that this presents has been largely missed by the legal profession.
This massive change to the house selling procedure has been followed closely by commercial outfits who have seen the opportunity to cash in on a huge market place.
As a result many HIP suppliers have emerged offering various HIP solutions to concerned estate agents.
They are using strong marketing campaigns and sales techniques to pressurise estate agents into exclusive deals requiring them to pre-book searches and energy performance certificates to guarantee production - although quite how that works in practice when you do not know the address of the property for which you are 'pre-booking' the searches is to say the least questionable.
This is happening whilst the legal profession sit back and wait for the Government to abandon this regulation.
The reality is that the Government is committed to this change and have forcefully rejected any resistance even when this was raised by the Law Society, Council of Mortgage Lenders and National Association of Estate Agents.
Estate agents who are used to dealing with and, for the most part, trust solicitors to offer a legal service have been left largely unsupported by the legal profession in this time of great change.
They are forced instead to rely on promises and proposals from largely untested new companies within this industry. The opportunities are vast for the legal profession in this exciting change to the House selling procedure - embrace the change and explore the opportunities or risk losing your place in the market.
ANGELA HESKETH is head of residential property at Lees Lloyd Whitley.