Domestic Energy Assessors are raising a petition to the Government to cut the shelf life of an EPC from ten years to one.
The Institute of Domestic Energy Assessors and HousingEnergyAdvisor.com want a 12-month validity period to apply to EPCs on both rental and sale stock.
But the proposal has been attacked by other DEAs.
On the Home Inspector Forum, one person called it “truly risible.” He added: “Not a cat in hell’s chance of happening. Of course, I accept it’s probably a negotiating gambit, but even so.”
Another labelled it “pure dreamland”.
The petition says that reducing the shelf-life of an EPC would encourage the public to improve the energy efficiency of their properties, and would provide more accurate information to both local and central government.
It adds that a requirement to have EPCs that are no more than one year old would also develop the energy efficiency business, including the creation of future jobs.
The petition calls for the immediate implementation of the suggestion, which it proposes as an amendment to the Energy Bill that is currently making its way through Parliament.
The chances of the proposed amendment being accepted are at odds with earlier accusations that the Government originally ‘gold-plated’ the EU requirement for an EPC by giving it a three-year shelf life for a property for sale.
The RICS in fact threatened a judicial review over the matter, saying that it was against government policy to gold-plate EU legislation unless there was a demonstrable benefit. The High Court agreed that the RICS had a reasonable case. In the event, the RICS stayed its hand.
Its threat of a judicial review was cited by then CLG secretary Ruth Kelly as the reason for delaying the introduction of HIPs.
Only last year, the Regulatory Policy Committee advised against extending the scope of EPCs, saying that CLG needs to research the effectiveness of the current regime before there are any further extensions.
The committee was scathing about CLG’s consulation, which took place last year, saying that CLG had not done its sums properly.
One of the most controversial proposals in the consultation would make it mandatory for all property advertising, including all newspaper and online listings, to include EPC graphs. The committee savaged this proposal, saying: “If the information about energy efficiency of properties was an essential factor in attracting potential buyers, then estate agents would already have been including that information in the adverts.”
However, the European Commission is due to recast – ie, beef up – the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, and the new version is expected to be implemented by 2012 or 2013.
You can see the trade bodies’ petition below. The blog explains the thinking behind it.
https://www.whatstheidea.org.uk/docs/Petitionfin.pdf
https://whatstheidea.org.uk/blog/?p=119
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Comments
Do buyers ever ask to see the EPC?? no. They are a total waste of time.....get rid of them Like HIPs they should be scrapped.
Utter load of complete nonsense dreamt up by, as usual, daft New Labour - let's tax the housing industry to death and give jobs to bunch of otherwise unemployable tossers (no offence). Added by Mike Wilson on 2011-02-22 16:52:10
Another ill informed source posting.
The legislation is EU - nothing to do with Labour/Conservative or any other political party.
As for unemployable - well I gave up an extremely well paid post in a Blue Chip company to work in the energy assessment field.
I am still contacted by major recruitment companies to fill posts that they have, along with letters & Telecoms from my 'old' company to return to the fold
Do like the part about Greggs having a pie chart , after that the intellegence of the debate fell off a cliff
"give jobs to bunch of otherwise unemployable tossers (no offence)."
Well I do take offence. So I am an unemployable tosser?
2 Diploma (Level 5)
1 NVQ (Level 4)
2 NVQ (Level 3)
NEBOSH Cert
CIT Cert
MInstLM
MIexpE
DipDEA
I enjoy working as a DEA and belive in Carbon Reduction/Energy Saving.
You could put a pretty pie chart showing the proportion of that sausage rolls, pasties and pies contribute to Greggs' sales figures for all the notice that anyone takes of the EPC stuff on agents' details.
Utter load of complete nonsense dreamt up by, as usual, daft New Labour - let's tax the housing industry to death and give jobs to bunch of otherwise unemployable tossers (no offence).
The consultation document itself recommends that in 2015 that the EPC 'shelf life' be for one year only.
This will not effect anyone buying a new property, until they come to sell it again. As most people stay in a property for several years before moving again it does not impose a burden on them - financial or otherwise.
When selling a property a solicitor is required to have documentation from LA searches, Water/Drainage and Land Registry that are up to date - the shelf life for these is far shorter than that of an EPC.In fact it is at exchange of contracts.
If you resell immediatly you are required to obtain new ones. These document cost significantly more than that of an EPC.
Landlords are the ones who would be needing to get a new certificate annually. As it seems that only the LA social housing providers are those that attempt to achieve a 'Decent Homes' standard it is within their power to refuse to pay out public monies to landlords whose properties fall well below this standard.
The EPC maybe the stick but the government is offering some substantial carrots(grants & capital allowances) within the Green Deal for landlords.
Landlords are or should be obtaining annual gas & electrical certification for their properties and these cost substantially more than an EPC to obtain - they are also tax deductable , so where is the beef?
Compliance is a seperate issue and certainly needs dealing with. Trading Standards , who have received over £6.7M extra funding to 'police' compliance have failed miserably - especially in the commercial market.
Surveys by both NHER and Quinos reveal the extent of non compliance and over 60% is the figure obtained.
If energy efficiency and carbon reduction is to be taken seriously by Joe Public then drastic action is called for.
Yes tie the EPC into rating sytems.
Yes refuse public funds for rents on properties that fall below a minimum standard.
Yes have a shelf life of 1 year for an EPC
The consultation document itself recommends that in 2015 that the EPC 'shelf life' be for one year only.
This will not effect anyone buying a new property, until they come to sell it again. As most people stay in a property for several years before moving again it does not impose a burden on them - financial or otherwise.
When selling a property a solicitor is required to have documentation from LA searches, Water/Drainage and Land Registry that are up to date - the shelf life for these is far shorter than that of an EPC.In fact it is at exchange of contracts.
If you resell immediatly you are required to obtain new ones. These document cost significantly more than that of an EPC.
Landlords are the ones who would be needing to get a new certificate annually. As it seems that only the LA social housing providers are those that attempt to achieve a 'Decent Homes' standard it is within their power to refuse to pay out public monies to landlords whose properties fall well below this standard.
The EPC maybe the stick but the government is offering some substantial carrots(grants & capital allowances) within the Green Deal for landlords.
Landlords are or should be obtaining annual gas & electrical certification for their properties and these cost substantially more than an EPC to obtain - they are also tax deductable , so where is the beef?
Compliance is a seperate issue and certainly needs dealing with. Trading Standards , who have received over £6.7M extra funding to 'police' compliance have failed miserably - especially in the commercial market.
Surveys by both NHER and Quinos reveal the extent of non compliance and over 60% is the figure obtained.
If energy efficiency and carbon reduction is to be taken seriously by Joe Public then drastic action is called for.
Yes tie the EPC into rating sytems.
Yes refuse public funds for rents on properties that fall below a minimum standard.
Yes have a shelf life of 1 year for an EPC
As has been already said here, the DEA's are simply trying to build a bigger market in which to make money!
With so very few new homes coming onto the market and with many properties taking years to sell, this is a no brainer request!
Unfortunately, the current EPC is so very weak that even I a person added new UPVC windows and more insulation in the roof, the resulting calculation would make very little difference, so there is little incentive to do anything.
When the council starts charging higher council tax for inefficient homes, based on their EPC score, will people be motivated to do something about their home and then they will be back for a new graph.
Finally, many agents out there are still failing to obtain EPC's on their current stock and this needs to be addressed first before we start thinking about the shelf life of current EPC's!
Talk about moving the goal posts or trying to create a bigger industry for yourself through legislation!
To be honest the petition will only carry weight if it includes.....
(1) EPC to be reproduced every 1 year
(2) Every house in the UK must change ownership via a sale using an Estate Agent within a 2 year period
(3) Every Bank/Building Soc must lend to anyone who applies.
(4) Every rental property must change tenancy during a 2 year period via a letting agency.
(5) All agents are to be made exempt from Corp Tax due to the increased activity we will suffer in our bid to help the globe go green
(6) oh and perhaps DEAS can do desk top assesments via google street view to help save the planet on the how ever many additional car journeys and paper trails such a daft idea to repro EPC's yearly will create!
My pension income is not high enough.
I demand It be immediately increased by a multiple of 10 !
I've never been against the EPC document as a whole, but this idea is awful.
Yes, it would make more jobs, but this would be pick-pocketing the public to fund it, so it's a no-go.
Setting up toll rounds on every main road would also create more jobs.
The goalposts cannot be moved simply to create more work/income at the public's expense.
Back to the drawing board...
Tears... has an obvious point to make!
It didn't work for the miners, the car industry, the steel industry etc.... If your market or industry is is decline you'd better be pretty convincing with how you try to turn it around.
This not in the slightest a convincing drive by the IDEA, or the other quoted mob...whoever they happen to be!
Where 'Tears' drops the credibility though is the last statement, to brand an entire workforce as pathetic shows complete ignorance.
Had the EPC not been a part of the much ridiculed HIP, but brought in on it's own merits the situation would be somewhat different, unfortunately anything aremotely associated with the HIP is generally taken as a joke. The Government of the time no doubt decided that as the HCR was going to be dropped the EPC would help to add strength to the HIP.
The point is the RdSAP methodolgy used for the domestic EPC on existing dwellings is totally inadequate, assumptions over age bands and bregs compliance is just not good enough. Add this to the 'sea' of qualified level 3 DEA's, ruthless pricing from unnecessary 'Panels' and average fees being less than a meter reader would earn...you have a hotchpotch mess trying to achieve recognition as 'professional'. When the average DEA 'still' working are that disillussioned ticking boxes quality has gone on the slide...to the rescue comes the DCLG with it's audting scheme with muted threats of suspension (this is how you get rid of over capacity).
The sector only needs some 1,500 DEA's yet somewhere over the rainbow the Training Providers saw cash in the 'sausage machine' principal and created over 21,000 DEA's...worst example to date was a biker dressed in leathers on a round trip of 150 miles for £18.00.
The proposed 'green deal' will see another batch of wierdly qualifieds hit the streets 'Home Energy Advisor', or 'Green Deal Advisor' as it may be known, in ost cases these will be DEA's adding yet another NVQ as the DEA will not be qualified enough!?!...more expense. This undermines the existing qualification and is laughable again. I guess Bus Drivers will soon need to be qualified for a particular colour of bus!!!
If the energy rating becomes linked to council tax bands then everyone will take notice and act on it.
Commercial EPC and DEC compliance is just not happening, these buildings are notoriously bad in emissions and operation yet no policing of compliance appears to be effective. Most DEC's are now out of date and are not being updated annually as they were supposed to be. As commercial Agents do not have a legal requirement the same as Estate Agents toward the EPC then there is no leverage to prompt at the commencement of marketing.
To say in the article that Estate Agents would be using energy efficiency information in selling properties is ridiculous, I don't see any particulars make mention of survey results even if they are positive.
Is there a market for 'green dwellings'?...oh yes! In the past year I have seen some 600 building plans most of these designing in solar thermal, PV, heat pumps not because they have to, or because they have a whim to do it...because the Client is asking for it!!
The next 10 to 20 years will see a dramatic shift away from old traditional ways of heating, lighting and hot water.
Regardless of carbon emissions, energy resourcing will be one of the main drivers.
So embrace it, learn about it and adopt it!
I'd heard about this forthcoming mandatory requirement for ALL property advertising to carry the EPC graphs-Is that still likely to happen and if so exactly when?
Most agents are not aware that this is even on the agenda!
Good luck with this one DEA's.
If this comes good i'll take the course and do them myself as will alot of lettings firms, saving money and time.
I laughed so much I am crying, looked at the date and it wasn't even 1st April. Come on, this has got to be a joke. An industry that was promised so much by the labour government and was let down, just like the rest of the voting population, has come up with this idea to save themselves. If sales continue on there downward spiral will the RICS insist the government pass a law that everyone has to have a survey each year, or if shoe shops start closing will the shoe industry demand everyone by new shoes every month, I could go on being pathetic just like the DEA but I have got some real work to do.