Estate agents should be required to display a property’s annual energy bill when they market it.
The call has gone out from the Energy Saving Trust, which says that energy bills are easier for consumers to understand than EPCs.
It wants to make it much easier for buyers to identify homes that are expensive to heat before they decide to buy or rent them. It wants home energy consumption to be as transparent and easily understood as miles-per-gallon for cars.
The combined gas and electricity bill for a four-bedroom house ranges from £700 to £2,300 a year depending on the amount of insulation and the efficiency of the boiler, the trust says, although it did not draw attention to the effect that different lifestyles have on utility costs.
It argues that displaying the cost of energy in estate agents’ advertisements would prompt sellers to make improvements. Faced with two similar properties, it believes buyers would be more likely to choose the one with the lower bills.
Fraser Winterbottom, the trust’s chief operating officer, said: “Homes that are up for sale or rent should clearly show an average predicted annual running cost in the same way that new cars display miles per gallon in showrooms.
“It will make energy efficiency part of the negotiation between buyer and seller.”
Winterbottom said that EPCs were inadequate because they used an A to G rating that was not as easily to understand as the average annual bill. “The A to G systems relies on quite an educated buyer who knows the system,” he said. “The information needs to be simpler and much more prominent.”
The call comes as the first raft of changes to EPC rules are due to kick in on July 1.
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Comments
Paul.......I never mentioned RM..........what ever made you think that I would pressume there business model seems like a good way to retire early! LOL
Ric
Did you invent Rightmove or are you just suggesting a line of attack that they use?
Hi Paul
No go away its mine, I am going to charge agents for this idea and take the videos for them, it will cost £300 to £500 a month and when I have signed up all the agents I will increase the rates yearly and understaff my customer service department.
Oh but for the £500 we will visit you once a year to let you know the fees are increasing and to tell you how many people looked at the video and energy bill.
Sorry Paul its just seems like a business model that might work and I am not letting you pinch this ideal......got to go, I have a meeting with British Gas they want to sponsor my idea!....LOL
Have a good weekend
Is it April 1st again?
When will these brainless low life's bugger off and leave us alone.
Note to Neil R - what brains?
Note to Ric - can I pinch your idea?
Note to Prontaprint - learn to spell
Lets get everything right. Lets put on agents details fill HIPS, EPC's, Utility Bills, Deeds, Contracts infact everything this way Solicitors would not be required, One Stop Prperty Shop.................simples
Bring back Home Infornation Packs, they were really good..............ooops sorry too many Pimms tonight ;-))
Total Rubbish..............
@Anthony
I know all that - I am very well versed in EPCS and am only too aware as well how little regard is paid to them mainly because they are so flawed. The idea has some merit but what we have now is not good - bit like tenancy deposit really. Good idea poorly delivered.
I am suprised to read that the EPC in its current form is difficult to understand. The graph is the same as that on a fridge freezer, washing machine or new car. Perhaps what should be included on the graph is that an 'E' rating is the UK average. This may provide a platform by which householders can gauge the efficiency of their property.
I note some of you are concerned by the way the energy efficiency is measured. Obviously, the number of occupants and how many hours the property is used per day would have a bearing on the properties efficiency. It is for this reason that the EPC is based on a standardised occupancy. This is the only way we can compare properties on a like for like basis.
The EPC assumes the heating will come on from 7 am to 9 am in the morning and 5 pm to 11 pm in the evening (Monday toFriday). At the weekend it is assumed the property is heated for 16 hours per day. The default temperatures are 21 degrees C for the main living room and 18 degrees C for the restof the dwelling. This enables heating costs to be compared on a like-for-like basis and not on the actual use of the heating system by the homeowner. For example, there may be two identical dwellings, one of which is occupied by a single person who heats only one room for a few hours of the day, and the other is home to a large family heating the whole house formost of the day. Both will achieve the same scores on the A to G scale.
Please also be aware that the fabric of the building plays a significant role in the properties rating.
Anthony Smith
anepc.co.uk
Energy bills on particulars.....yep buyer more likely to buy a house with a lower bill....
Just written to all my vendors, all about to turn the heating off and electrics off until they sell I have a few 5 bed houses as a result with bills at around £15 a month.........the vendor of my empty houses are the most impressed with the idea this will sell their house for sure!
EPCs are a waste granted I am a Qual DEA as well as EA so I care not which ever way they go and I only charge £40 to my vendors for them.......but bill on particulars, picture of the neighbours kids and a secret video of the person who lives opposite should help aswell......V funny idea, well done Fraser!
Blimey me and PeeBee agreeing on something!!
@Chris
So how come when I did query the rating on my son's flat was I told by the DEA that even if gas central heating was installed (totally unnecessary in this flat and possibly prevented in the head lease anyway as there is no gas in the blocks) it was highly unlikely that it would ever rise from it's current E46 (I was wrong it is E not even D!!) to above C71
His partner's is B86 and could rise to B88 know how - by ensuring low energy light bulbs are used everywhere! And you reckon this isn't complete nonsense (like my new best friend PeeBee i will use polite language).
Look at the word under the prettyy (useless) energy rating graphs and I quote:-
"The higher the rating the more energy efficient the home is AND THE LOWER THE FUEL BILLS ARE LIKELY TO BE". I won't insult you with the ludicrous comments in the WHAT CAN I DO TODAY section which needless to say are standard tripe as they are the same in both EPCs..
Really - not between these two the higher rating (by a long way) won't be lower (also by a long way).
Tell me how does a DEA assess my well bult 24 year old detached here when it can be noticeably cooler downstairs but the upstairs is always, always warm?
In Portsmouth many years ago I had a house with two independent systems one for upstairs and one downstairs and two separate thermostats - might that have got me an A rating?
Chris - I assume you are a DEA. Sorry, but in my opinion, EPC's are a waste of time!
"Fraser Winterbottom, the trust’s chief operating officer, said: “Homes that are up for sale or rent should clearly show an average predicted annual running cost in the same way that new cars display miles per gallon in showrooms."
This individual (I have replaced the initial word to avoid my post being deleted...) obviously doen not realise that the MPG displayed on the car was produced in a controlled environment, in a test car, and does NOT relate in any way, shape or form to the MPG that the OWNER of the car in the showroom will achieve.
These people should never be set loose in public, if you ask me...
But there are costings on the EPC for both the energy use and guidance for the costs of making improvements. There is also a link to soiftware that enables you to "play" / model the effect of adopting various changes to heating systems, fuels etc; Any DEA worth his salt will explain all this to vendors / landlords as part of the service of providing the EPC.
The problem is though that agents etc; pay scant regard to the EPC instead of actually educatiing themselves about the document and presenting it as a positive tool instead of rubbishing it becasue they have not bothered to, I use the word aagin, EDUCATE themselves.
The EPC is not just a little coloured graph its a 5 - 7 page document and the new version since 17th April is much more user friendly than the old one.
Some people need to engage their brains before their mouths.
Clearly someone who is in all day with their heating on full blast, and likes to have two showers a day is going to use more energy than someone who is out all day working.
What planet are these people on?
Yes this is complete nonsense but I have made the following comment before on what a nonsense EPCs are too.
My son has a 25 year old 2nd floor flat with double glazing, tons of insulation in the loft space as he is top floor, but only electric Economy 7 type wall heaters.
His partner has a lovely 3 year old middle floor flat with everything including gas CH.
Both are rented so both have EPCs
The partner's one is as close to an A rating as you can get (I am told an A rating is impossible unless you are selling power back to the national grid and I think that may be a serious comment not a joke!!)
My son's is D rated purely because of the heating style there can be no other reason.
But his tenant's bills are far lower - why because his flat faces due south and gets sun all day in the lounge and kitchen so imagine how hot it has been there since start of April - we are talking central southern England here.
Anyone paying ther remotest attention to the EPC ratings would be tempted to give my son's flat a wide berth - but you hardly ever need the heating on even in the depths of winter.
EPCs are well intended and should mean something but I'd guess that for 90%+ of the UK housing stock are a complete waste of time.but a nonsense
How absurd as consumption and cost wil vary depending on how people choose to live.
We'll have to include a photo of the owners to show how many jumpers they wear and a record of how often they open the windows.
Maybe the 'energy saving trust' should save energy by turning off the PC this silly report was written on?
What a load of tosh .
I am a cancer sufferer in remission and feel the cold terribly
so I always want my heating turned up .
My wife complains about how hot the house is !
If I were a normal person I wouldn't need the heating on
and consequently my bills would be far lower .
What use would that be to a buyer of my house ?
Absolute rubbish
These people have to be joking. The A to G system is hard to understand!?! One thinks that someone is trying to get himself some more funding.
More tosh from another jobsworth! No-one takes any notice of EPC's and this will be more paperwork chucked in the bin. As the article says, they have not taken into account the different lifestyles. The difference between some fitness fanatic who likes fresh air and never has the heating on and some idle, shirker who sits in front of the gas fire all day watching the Jeremy Kyle Show will be immense. So what do we put? The energy bills for this property will range from £250 a year to £2500 a year. Very helpfull!