The government has made provision of the Home Condition Report voluntary, but is still worth having one done in order to gain an advantage over other sellers, writes David Lawrenson .

From June 1st 2007, the only mandatory element in the Home Information Pack (HIP) will be the energy performance certificates (EPC), searches and other legal documents.

The home condition report element will remain part of the Home Information Pack, but as a voluntary item, allowing them more time to be tested in a dry run.

For now, the trained up home inspectors will have to content themselves with doing the energy performance certificates though some may be lucky and find they are required to do the odd voluntary home condition report.

In the longer term too, they can also look forward to a bit more work doing energy performance certificates for rented properties when these become mandatory, at the latest from January 2009.