Home Information Packs have become the latest handy weapon for house buyers looking to knock thousands of pounds off asking prices.

According to a survey of 1,557 people by Hyder Consulting Environment and Home Survey, nearly half of all buyers said that they are ready to use the energy report in the HIP to demand a discount on the asking price. And 14 per cent of those surveyed said a poor energy report would make them think twice about buying in the first place.

From yesterday, all homeowners selling their property will need a HIP, paying up to £600. The packs, which include some local searches and an energy efficiency rating, were first made a requirement for homes with four or more bedrooms in August and extended to three-bedroom properties in October.

The findings have come at a bad time for homeowners, who face mounting pressure to drop prices in the face of a sharp fall in house-hunting numbers as banks and building societies rein in their lending.

At the start of the year the discount between asking and sale prices hit a record low in most of London and the South East as demand outstripped supply.

But figures out this week revealed that last month sales of homes across the country fell at their fastest rate for eight years.

The number of newly agreed sales dropped for the fifth month in a row in November, the sharpest decline since the start of 1999, according the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Experts have criticised the Government for backtracking on initial plans to include a home condition report in the HIP, which could have saved potential buyers from paying for a survey.

HIPs have also been criticised for failing to include any information on flooding.

Mike Ockenden, of AHIPP, a Hip provider, said: “For HIPs to fully inform potential buyers about properties they are viewing, it is vital that the Home Condition Report (HCR) is made a mandatory part of the pack and that many of the searches which provide information on flooding, ground movement and contamination, are included."

The National Association of Estate Agents said that the HIPs legislation was clumsy and blamed it for a decline in new instructions.

Stewart Lilly, president of the NAEA, said: “At the moment – EPCs aside – HIPs are wasting everyone’s time... it really would be in everyone’sbest interests to scrap HIPs.”

The Hyder survey was conducted between November 1 and 6 this year.

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