Estate agents have urged the Government to allow homeowners to be able to continue to put their property up for sale before they have received a home information pack (Hip).

The pressure group Splinta (Sellers' Pack Law is Not the Answer) claims that moves which will prevent owners from marketing their property before they have a Hip in place are an infringement of their personal liberty to sell a property at will.

At the moment, homeowners can begin to market their property as soon as they have ordered a Hip, but from June 1 they will not be able to put their home up for sale until they actually have one of the packs.

Splinta has launched a petition on the 10 Downing Street website, which is calling for the law not to be changed, and it has already been signed by 2,645 people.

Campaigners claim that because the packs can take several days to assemble, sellers will face a delay before they can begin to market their homes.

Nick Salmon, leader of Splinta and a fellow of the National Association of Estate Agents, said: "There is no sustainable argument in favour of ending first day marketing and the strength of feeling about this is making itself shown in the rapidly escalating number of signatures on the petition.

"(Housing minister) Caroline Flint has inherited the poison chalice of Hips from her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, and we sincerely hope that she will take a pragmatic and intelligent view about the scheduled change to the regulations.

"If she doesn't there will be a lot of angry sellers knocking on her door in June."

Mr Salmon said several thousand branches of estate agents and solicitors across the UK are forwarding a circular email entitled "Don't let Gordon Brown take another liberty" to their clients, colleagues and friends, inviting them to sign the petition.

Hips were phased in gradually during the latter part of last year, and all properties which are put up for sale in England and Wales are now required to have one.

The Government believes they will.speed up the house buying process and reduce the number of sales that fall through by giving people more of the information they need in order to make a decision about buying a house up front.

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