This, from a Rat and Mouse reader:

Really enjoy your blog.

I see many benefits to the market with giving potential buyers the expectation that searches, contract etc will be immediately available to inform their decision but think the compulsory addition of the environmental report is ludicrous. To pay however many hundred pounds for a report stating that I could save money using low wattage bulbs does not give me anything I don't already know. Far better for the government to spread the message through advertising.

I would be interested in the views of your readers on my plan to sidestep this lunacy - I have a number of let flats that I may or may not wish to sell later in the year. The legislation exempts properties on the market prior to 1st June (until the end of the year) so I propose placing a single ad in a cheap local paper to place them on the market (however ineffectually) before that date. Would this work?

Regards,

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Which - I guess - boils down to what does it mean to have a property on the market? My guess is that if our reader decides he later wants to advertise them with an estate agent, he'll have to cough up for a HIP. But I can't give a technical answer to his question. Can you?

UPDATE - FROM HENRY PRYOR OF PRIMEMOVE.COM:

The Housing Act 2004 defines the meaning of "on the market" in section 149 (2) as "A residential property is put on the market when the fact that it is or may become available for sale is, with the intention of marketing the property, first made public in England and Wales by or on behalf of the seller." As such, "the Responsible Person" (usually an estate agent but in the case of a private sale the seller) must prepare a HIP - including the EPC if the property is first marketed after 1st June. Estate Agents up and down the country are advertising to the public that by instructing them before 1st June will mean that until the end of the year, they will not require a HIP. By advertising the properties (and I mean all of them) before 1st June they should qualify for the exemption. BUT.... your reader may not be aware that from 1st October next year all rental properties will require an EPC. I suspect that the Government have got you both ways!

Thanks, Henry. And notice Henry says, "until the end of the year"... this is a short-term plan, with a cut-off to the exemption (see the comments, below).

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