NEARLY 150 estate agents across the country have added their names to a letter from a group called SPLINTA calling on the government "to shelve the implementation of this potentially disastrous measure".

"The property industry estimates that faced with the cost of the HIP up to 30 per cent of sellers will not come to the market each year," say the protestors.

"The HIP will have no shelf life so if a property fails to sell in a short period of time the content will become out of date requiring further expenditure to update the documents. No prudent buyer will rely on a survey report that is more than three months old and they are unlikely to trust a survey commissioned by the seller.

"Lenders have so far failed to endorse the HIP and there is no obligation on them to accept its content. Buyers will still face the cost of valuation inspections."

Those who object to the new legislation conclude: "Consumers will be disappointed and angry to discover that the HIP will leave them facing many of the problems inherent in the property buying system including gazumping, gazundering, chains and, most importantly, the fact that many transactions fail because people simply change their minds."