EU gets set to upgrade EPC requirements, says Ockenden

It's simple really, If HIPs and EPCs were so helpful useful and valued by the property industry and solicitors at the sharp end, this forum and others like it would not exist! - We'd all love them so much we'd be screaming for thier expansion - The reality of course is that there is no apetite for them, they stifle the market and serve little practical purpose. They interfere with the free market - It's rediculous that i can't even talk to a potential buyer of a house that i have been asked to sell simply because a HIP is not in place and that as a result both that buyer and my client is potentially disadvantaged - It's a real shame that this Government and the vested interest groups have no proper understanding of how the market works - If they had, they would never had implemented them in the first place - Hopefully sanity will prevail in the end - Incidentally I'm hearing reports of wholesale law breaking by agents who are offering property for sale without HIPs and frankly i don't blame them , not that I as a law abiding agent would ever countenance such behaviour in my own office of course!

• 04 September 2009 21:07 PM

Why on earth is this article quoting Ockenden on matters of EPCs?

• 04 September 2009 14:35 PM

"on all marketing". Well thought out chaps. (Not!) How do we put an EPC on a sale or let board? We are not Swedish and I for one would just love the EU to keep their noses out of our more national domestic affairs and concentrate on Europe. Mr O - HIPs have been around for a year and most, including solicitors, have little use for them. Why don't you just admit that however good the intentions, they are a waste of time and quietly fade away? Those who advocate their continuance are seldom involved in house selling or conveyancing but have an interest as providers. (Incidentally, why should tax payers, through the government, be supporting and enforcing your commercial interests?) If they have such faith in them (i.e. they are considered to be so useful, helpful and time saving) put such convictions to the test and put your money where your mouth is. SUPPORT the move to ban them. Sell them yourselves direct to the public and see how successful and important they are. Agents can get on selling houses, solicitors can get on with conveyancing, Trading Standards can get on with more important things, a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy can be dismantled (therefore saving tax payers’ money) and IF they prove themselves as such a wonderful product on a voluntary basis, YOU will still make money. Everyone a winner.

• 04 September 2009 12:02 PM

Great to finally see some compliance, progress and forward thinking EPBD action. If only we were more like Sweden!!!!

• 04 September 2009 11:16 AM

Perhaps you whinging agents should stop moaning about how hard this makes your life and accept that there is some good in the EPC, and you might as well get on with it.

• 04 September 2009 11:15 AM

God bless Mr Ockenden, polishing the silver on the Titanic.
'Iceberg?, what iceberg ?'

• 04 September 2009 10:03 AM

Perhaps the Tories might just have the guts to tell the EU to stick its upgraded EPC where the low-energy light bulb don't shine. And if they don't, we should.

• 04 September 2009 10:00 AM