How much will it cost me?

The cost to sellers of Home Information Packs will be set by the market.

When you send a Pack to a prospective purchaser, you must not charge for the Pack itself, but you may make a reasonable charge for copying and posting it.

The only new cost in the buying and selling process, which is borne by the seller, is for an Energy Performance Certificate, but this is a small fraction of the overall cost of buying and selling a home - and opens up the possibility of lower fuel bills and more energy-efficient homes in the future.

All buyers get the information for free - so the Pack will be of particular benefit to first-time buyers.

The overall costs of buying and selling a home will be similar to now, but will be spread more evenly between buyers and sellers.