Estate agents should focus more attention on ensuring they don''t lose out financially if they offer to pay the upfront costs of a home information pack (Hip) for sellers, it has been suggested.

Hip Payment Services, which runs deferred payment schemes, said that while many agents fiercely oppose the packs, some have been footing the bill for them in order to entice homeowners to put their property on the market.

Jeff Smith, chief executive of Hip Payment Services, said that this could turn out to be a risky strategy, commenting: "Agents are essentially turning themselves into lenders, but with no safeguard against un-recovered fees should the seller walk away.

"We believe that in the current climate the chance of a sale not completing is too great, and agents could be left to chase significant irrecoverable costs," he added.

There have been a number of factors squeezing agents but in recent weeks, Peter Bolton King, the chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, has said that he had been made aware of many people deciding not to sell because "they do not want to risk wasting £300 or indeed much more" on a Hip.