Home information packs in chaos with two weeks to go

• Penalty fine £400 cheaper than packs

• Only half the inspectors trained in time

The Government's controversial plans for Home Information Packs are in chaos, just weeks before it is supposed to come into force.

The investigation found that house sellers will simply pay a £200 fine for not having a pack to dodge the £600 cost of commissioning one.

No specific resources have been set aside to enforce the scheme and councils, which are meant to police it, say they can only do so "erratically" because of a lack of resources.

There were also claims today of a glitch in the computer software used to measure home energy ratings, a key part of the scheme. The programme is said to be failing to analyse the correct data, meaning ratings could be wrong.

In addition, the 2,000 domestic energy assessors who were supposed to carry out inspections are not ready. Housing Minister Yvette Cooper was forced to admit that just 1,100 have been trained, suggesting sellers who do comply will face long waiting lists.

HIPS will be compulsory by 1 June after Conservative MPs failed in their last ditch attempt to derail them in the Commons yesterday. Under the scheme home sellers must supply information packs telling prospective buyers how energy efficient their house is, as well as facts such as local searches and legal documents.

According to an Evening Standard investigation, sellers are likely to risk a fine for not having a HIP rather than getting the pack itself - as the fine is a fraction of the cost of the inspection.

Linda Beaney, of estate agents Beaney Pearce, said: "Obviously there will be some who would rather pay the £200 fine than organise to get a HIP, which could cost anything up to £600, especially nowadays, when London agents' fees are regularly in the thousands."

Under the current regulations, Trading Standards Officers will impose civil penalties of £200 on estate agents if they sell a house without a HIP. But the penalty is not a criminal offence and estate agents will have to be dragged through the civil courts if they fail to pay.

Sources said the penalty was "virtually unenforcable".

A spokesman for the Trading Standards Institute confirmed that monitoring HIPs would not necessarily be a priority for its officers, whose responsibilities include everything from ensuring restaurant hygiene standards to targeting pirate DVD gangs.

"We will, from 1 June, have a duty to enforce HIPs but have been given no specific additional resources for this purpose," said the spokesman.

"Trading Standards officers will have local priorities in their local areas, and this may not necessarily be one of them. We are also disappointed that the Government did not accept our request for a £500 penalty."

The spokesman added: "We expect a degree of confusion and an avalanche of calls to our members in early June. Because of the Government's delays, we have yet to issue guidance to our members."

Councils said they did not have additional resources to deal with HIPS enforcement and were unlikely to be pro-active.

Derek Allen, executive director of the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services, said: "We strongly lobbied for the breaches of the regulations to be a criminal offence, like property misdescription. This was rejected.

We feel the £200 penalty is too low to provide an incentive for compliance, and that local authorities are unlikely to pursue nonpayments of the fines because civil court action is too expensive."

A government spokesman said extra resources had been made available to enforce the scheme through the local government settlement.

"Any estate agent issued with a fixed penalty will be reported to the OFT who have the ability to issue a banning order preventing the offender from trading as an estate agent,î he added.