ENERGY PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATES

An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a report which must be commissioned on any residential or commercial property which is advertised, either for sale or to let. They are the reason you will see the "coloured graphs" that have started appearing on everything from fridges to new cars being advertised for sale.

They are required before any marketing is commenced and advise on the cost of implementing  recommendations that will have a recognisable impact, on the costs of heating or maintaining a property, such as solar panels. They also advise on the carbon di-oxide emissions and how this could be improved.  Solar panels have an average payback period of more than 25 years. We would suggest any such mechanisms put in place will themselves require replacing well before the 25 years is up so there will never be any payback! Neither do we believe that being forced by this government to spend anything between £45 and £250 on a report advising that energy saving light bulbs will save money, as well as cutting carbon emissions, is worth the massive increase in carbon emissions so produced. This legislation was introduced by the previous Labour Government on the back of EU Legislation. The present Coalition Government seem similarly ineffective in casting this hugely wasteful legislation aside.

Nevertheless commission them we have to do. Since many individual owners previously responsible failed to do so the government have now made it the responsibility of the Estate Agent to ensure their clients comply. 

HOME INFORMATION PACKS

HIP, HIP, HIPSTORY!

We are pleased to see that all our personal lobbying and petitioning was not in vain after all. HIPs have finally been suspended so the entire reference to them on this page can be ignored for the time being. 

The saga so far reads like a comedy of errors and it would be laughable if  the housing market hadn't been so seriously affected. The idiots who implemented the legislation cannot claim they were misguided as they chose to blatantly ignore the advice and guidance provided by property professionals throughout a trial period in 8 towns, one of these being Huddersfield. In the manner typical of  politicians today this government even managed to spin and deliberately misconstrue the independent Ipsos Mori poll conducted into the implementation of Home Information Packs. Every legitimate concern and warning expressed by everyone in the industry was swept under the carpet and a whitewashed report finally issued.  In the typical "we know best" fashion of the many changing government ministers involved in this debacle most of those involved in the industry liken it to dealing with a spoilt child. We have not spoken to a solitary person since the inception of HIPs or EPCs who has anything positive to say, whether buyer, seller, solicitor, surveyor, conveyancer, viewer, tenant, landlord, bank or building society. That is of course apart from the HIP providers themselves but many of them have already left the supply market, severely disillusioned, whilst a growing minority are beginning to question their worth. 

Despite calls from all corners to invoke the legislation already in place to suspend HIPs the government have arrogantly moved forward to the final stage at which from April 2009 no owner will be able to start marketing a property without a HIP. In truth it is nothing more than another "tax" on those wishing to try and sell a house as whilst HMRC will pick up a tidy wedge of VAT no one else will pay a blind bit of notice to any of the information in a pack. What is more frightening however is the fact that 10,000's of potential sellers will no longer "dip their toe" in the market. This is already having a serious adverse effect on the market and has very little to do with the credit crunch.

Energy Performance Certificates are no better. Required for all rental properties the cost of implementing any recommendations that will have a recognisable impact, such as solar panels, have an average payback period of more than 25 years. We would suggest any such mechanisms put in place will themselves require replacing well before the 25 years is up so there will never be any payback! Neither do we believe that being forced by this government to spend anything between £75 and £120 on a report advising that energy saving light bulbs will save money as well as cutting carbon emissions is an appropriate use of your resources, by them, in order to comply with European legislation only we in the UK ever seem to invoke! 

Needless to say 10 Downing Street have just chosen to ignore another petition to suspend the legislation.

Some help to the housing market that is.

Cheer up though - at least your VAT receipts will pay a few more parliamentary expenses or bail out a few more bankers!

The bottom line is HIPs and EPCs are now mandatory - for the time being anyway. We don't like them anymore than you and whilst they serve no useful purpose we are able to organise either of them at competitive rates. There is no catch but they will require to be paid for upfront and for the most part completed before you can even put a board outside and start to market your property. To do otherwise is now a civil offence but thankfully not the criminal offence government officials originally desired.