Mr Ockenden says homeowners with properties already on sale will not have to get an HIP that day. There will be a cut-off date later, when it will become an offence to have a home on sale without an HIP.

"I believe we will have 3,000 inspectors ready on day one," he says, "as major corporate agencies ensure their chartered surveyors are prepared for the new system.

"To qualify, chartered surveyors must submit 10 house reports, of which three can be Homebuyer's Reports which they offer at present, and seven HCRs, and do an exam to NVQ standard, for which they prepare online or in class.

"So far as newcomers are concerned, people with property backgrounds, including architects, estate agents, building engineers and possibly town hall planning officers, will train as Home Inspectors.

"People will do this job in hours that suit them, including evenings and weekends when people are more likely to be at home. With part-timers, the equivalent of 4,000 to 5,000 full-time HIs will be in place pretty soon."

Why can't HIPS be an optional extra for vendors to offer as a selling point, and introduced gradually?

Mr Ockenden says: "My members will pay something in excess of £100m for this new system. If it was optional, that investment wouldn't be justified."

Who really benefits from all the extra paperwork of HIPs?

"First-time buyers, who need all the help they can get, will be better off in three ways," says Mr Ockenden.

"The costs of their purchase will go down, as legal and local council costs are lower for them.

"Secondly, they will almost certainly know more than they do now about what they are buying.

"Currently, only 2 to 3% of buyers get full structural surveys, while about 17% pay for Homebuyers' Reports. The lender's valuation tells them nothing about the property, because they don't see it.

"With HCRs, buyers will get a much clearer idea of what they are buying, and how much it costs to run, with energy efficiency graded from A to E.

"Thirdly, buyers will benefit from lower stress levels, by securing property at an earlier date.

"We have seen first-time buyers spending £1,400 pursuing three properties when all three fall through," he says.

However, Mr Ockenden accepts HIs could be sued for compensation by three groups - vendors, purchasers and lenders - if things go wrong after their report, so they will need extensive insurance cover.

How much faster will home sales be with HIPs?

Deputy Director General Paul Broadhead says the 12-week exchange, which is "currently normal", could fall to six weeks.

Mr Ockenden says: "This is a two piece jigsaw, and the second piece is e-conveyancing. The benefits of HIPs will only be fully maximised when e-conveyancing exists widely. Where it has been piloted successfully, e-conveyancing leads to six week exchanges."

Mr Ockenden also says one target of the reform is "toe dippers": an estimated 10 to 15% of sellers who put homes on sale simply to see what happens.

Many of these people, he claims, subsequently duck out of agreed deals when they can't find somewhere else to go, contributing to a collapse in agreed sales topping 30% in some areas.

Mr Ockenden claims that plenty of agents like HIPs.

"If vendors pay £700 for a HIP, they are more likely to go through with the deal. Savvy agents who back the scheme know it will produce fewer fall-outs, so they get their fees faster," he says.

Eventually, he predicts, HIPs will make agents cut fees.

"Vendors will ask: "Why pay £3,500 to an estate agent to take four photographs for his window and the Rightmove website, when a detailed HIP costs perhaps a fifth of that price?

"It will put further pressure on agents to reduce fees, as the internet is already doing".

Mr Ockenden points out that conveyancing fees used to be commission based on price. Solicitors had to give that up, and agents' commission charges could go the same way.

Will the new system end gazumping and gazundering?

Curiously, the AHIPP duo say this aim never topped their reform agenda.

Mr Ockenden says: "The core issue is really the supply of sustainable housing and a more efficient market place working in the interest of both buyer and seller."

While Mr Broadhead says: "Gazumping was never the essential basis for reform and may affect less than 1% of sales. But under the new system, a buyer who is gazumped will spend much less of their own money."

How long will it take to provide an HIP, so a property can legally go on sale?

AHIPP members have apparently provided 2,500 HIPs in pilot projects. The average time to compile them has been nine days, with delivery times from four to 14 days.

Mr Ockenden says: "After 14 days, an agent will have the right to market a property even if the HIP is not yet quite complete, so there will be no great delay."

Mr Ockenden says potentially Cambridge, and two other towns could do HIP "test runs" this summer.

He also predicts that while builders are not "enormously affected" by HIPs on new houses, guarantees in the National HouseBuilding Council warranty supplied with most new homes will be "called in a lot more" when HIPs become law.

INFORMATION: Association of Home Information Pack Providers (0870 950 7739 and online at www.hipassociation.co.uk).

People who want to train as Home Inspectors should call SAVA on 0870 837 6565 or visit www.sava.org.uk

The fourth SAVA training programme for HIs from September 2006 includes a 12-month distance learning programme, nine learning weekends at the University of Reading and six training days at SAVA's Milton Keynes HQ. It costs £8,000, plus VAT. Places can be booked online at www.sava-fast-track.org.uk

:: AUCTION MARKET PICKS UP FOR SPRING

As long as the monthly reports of the housing market suggest prices are still rising - Halifax confirms a 0.9% rise in March - auction rooms will attract bidders who can't see the point in leaving cash in the bank.

The next series of Countrywide Property Auctions will be in Manchester on April 20, Leeds on April 21, London on April 25, Birmingham on April 27 and Abergele, North Wales on May 9.

Guide prices are between £25,000 and £30,000 for a three-bedroom terraced house in Hull, and from £45,000 for an end-terraced house in Burnley, Lancashire. This shows that buy-to-let investors can still make the figures stack up outside the pricey South-East.

A two-bedroom fifth floor flat in Pall Mall in Liverpool, rather than London, is guided at between £100,000 and £110,000, while a two-bedroom terraced house in Heywood, Greater Manchester, earning £75 per week on an Assured Shorthold tenancy, is guided at between £45,000 and £50,000.

The Leeds sale includes a relatively new two-bedroom apartment in a high block (between £120,000 and £130,000), and a detached four-bedroom house, barely a decade old, in Kingswood, Hull, at between £135,000 and £140,000.

The London sale includes a two-bedroom second-floor flat above Barclays Bank in South Molton, Devon, for between £78,000 and £80,000, and an attractive three-bedroom semi beneath a newly-thatched roof in Gotherington, Cheltenham, for between £250,000 and £275,000.

A house with huge potential is Grade II-listed Castle Cottage, in a third of an acre within a conservation area near Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight. It is guided at between £225,000 and £250,000.

INFORMATION: Countrywide Property Auctions (0906 666 2468).