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Conveyancing Today

Quango given Big Brother powers over EPCs

Monday 17th August 2009

The Energy Saving Trust quango has been given statutory powers to inspect EPCs of homes for sale that have achieved low scores, and to approach their owners.

The discovery follows Friday’s report by Estate Agent Today that the quango is calling on the Government to ban from the property market all residential sale or rental properties with low scores, from 2015.

It now seems that it will know exactly which those properties are, having gained new rights slipped through Parliament.

Thanks to research by estate agent Neil Kurz, it has been revealed that a Statutory Instrument was laid on July 20 – the day before Parliament broke up for its summer break. It came into force a week ago, on August 10.

There has been no attempt to publicise or consult on the introduction of this measure, which amends the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certifications and Inspections) (England and Wales) 2007.

The amendment says: “The keeper of the register may disclose to the Energy Saving Trust Limited any energy performance certificate and the accompanying recommendation report relating to a dwelling” that is for sale and which has a rating of F or G.

The amendment, which does not relate to rental properties, adds: “The disclosure is for the purposes of enabling the Energy Saving Trust Limited to provide information to the owner or occupier of the dwelling on measures that may be taken to improve its energy performance and on any financial assistance that may be available for taking such measures.”

Kurz, who is also a director of NRG Experts and one of the most experienced energy assessors in the country, having carried out almost 300 surveys, said: “I am extremely disappointed to see that the Government has once again failed to consult with industry about the impact of their proposal to allow the Energy Savings Trust statutory access to EPC records.

“The Energy Savings Trust has an extremely poor reputation for delivering good service, driven in part by being under-resourced. Certainly the energy assessor community don’t go out of their way to encourage property owners to phone the EST phone number given on the bottom on EPCs as you rarely speak to someone to answer even the simplest of questions – you merely get referred on.

“Having now uncovered this Statutory Instrument which give the Government yet more data collection powers, I won’t be surprised to see if they will want to match up the personal data about property landlords to their own tax records.

“Energy assessors are pretty sick to death with the Government’s incompetence over EPCs. Maybe one day they’ll recognise that those people actually doing the job and speaking to the public really do know best. Until such time, we’ll have to put up with their incompetence until the next election when the fun will start all over again!”

The Energy Saving Trust, once slated as one of Britain’s nine worst quangos, costs £43m a year to run – money which, its critics say, would be better spent on boiler insulation.

Estate Agent Today thanks the many posters who commented after Friday’s report about this quango’s demand to prevent people selling or renting homes that have poor energy efficiency ratings. Some – ourselves included – were inclined to treat this issue a little light-heartedly. With this latest move, we can now all see just how serious a matter this is.

Quango tells Government to ban homes with low EPCs

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Posted By David Force on Monday 17th August 2009 14:46:02

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Peebee, you put that so well: my thoughts exactly. I do wonder whether these people work on commission: the civil servant who comes up with the daftest idea of the month takes the prize. And with £43 million..... that's FORTY THREE MILLION POUNDS in the pot, there must be a fair amount sloshing around. As Littlejohn would say: "You couldn't make it up!" Mind how you go.

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Posted By robbiew on Monday 17th August 2009 13:33:36

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To say there was no consultation on this issue is incorrect. Mr Kurtz should get his facts right before spouting off.The CLG website provides the relevant consultation response document, which says
On 23 June 2008 the Government published a consultation on the following issues:
• To give the EST access to the information contained in domestic EPCs so that they
can identify F and G rated homes and target them with an offer of advice and help
• To give the Carbon Trust access to the information contained in non-domestic EPCs
• To allow energy assessors to search the register by address as well as by UPRN
• To allow public access to the non-domestic register in order to see whether a
building has an EPC, but not to download or access the EPC.
The consultation asked three questions:
1. What are your views on these proposals?
2. Do you think the safeguards proposed on access to the registers are
sufficient?
3. If you do not think the safeguards are sufficient what are the reasons for
your opinion, and are there other safeguards that you can suggest to meet
your concerns?
The consultation closed on 1 September

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Posted By PeeBee on Monday 17th August 2009 12:48:33

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Methane is acknowledged as being one of the worst greenhouse gases. Can't believe, therefore, how much bull s**t the government, EST et al get away with producing! I would challenge one remark made in the story, by Neil Kurz. His words - "The Energy Savings Trust has an extremely poor reputation for delivering good service, driven in part by being under-resourced..." What part of £43 million a year qualifies for "under resourced"??

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Posted By TREVOR KENT on Monday 17th August 2009 12:00:15

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Government using HIPs and EPCs for purposes other than those they claimed when introduction was first mooted - gosh, there's a suprise. Thank goodness I'm not a 'told you so' sort of person.

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Posted By Ray Evans of Sheringham on Monday 17th August 2009 11:39:05

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Seems to me that if there are not some drastic changes in the way this country is governed, come next May, there will have to be a popular revolution by the ordinary people to preserve democracy and therefor our freedom.

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Posted By Christopher Hall on Monday 17th August 2009 11:10:27

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Nick, on Friday you said “It’s fortunate that there’s an election coming as this discredited and decaying government might just be daft enough to think the EST is right.”
Nick, perhaps they are on a suicide mission as the only way out of all this HIP related mess! Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony Party would have difficulty dreaming this one up – that said Item 1 on his manifesto does make sense – “To combat global warming and climate change all buildings should be fitted with air conditioning units on the outside” – wishing fellow working agents a cracking week whilst others build their sand castles

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Posted By Jo P on Monday 17th August 2009 10:37:57

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Just one more thing to tighten the ever gripping noose around our necks.

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Editorial Contact Details - Rosalind Renshaw | rosalind.renshaw@estateagenttoday.co.uk | 01252 843 566.