HIP HIP hurray?

Well, we've had an interesting couple of months after making an offer on new house back in September. But over the last week we've had to pull the plug on the offer.
From a buyers perspective, the sooner HIPS are in place for all properties the better.
If we'd had sight of a survey, carried out at the expense of the current owner, then we would never had made a serious offer at the level we did. Indeed, I doubt the estate agent would even have tried to market property at the price they did!
As it is, someone else will eventually make an offer, and have to go through the same process of paying for a survey. There is only one beneficiary as far as I can see, and thats surveyers!
Fortunately its possible for our solicitor to sell on the results of property searches, but we can't sell the survey results to any potential buyer...