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Read the latest update from the world of EPCs and Property23/02/2010 http://system.newzapp.co.uk/GPage.asp?LID=OSwxMjg0NTIwNTM=
Let us Quote you Happy!08/01/2010 Once the quote is received, a simple on line form is completed and the client will then receive a call from one of our fully qualified Energy Assessors.
Appointments are available 7 days a weeks with th EPC being emailed to the client within 24 hours.
Payment can be made securely on-line by debit or credit card. Bank transfer and cheques complete our payment options.
To obtain your instant quote, just click on the EPC Quote button to the left of our Home Page. WWF welcomes 2019 European deadline......29/04/2009 The European Parliament vote proposes that by 2019 all new houses, offices, hospitals, schools and shops built in the European Union are to produce the same amount of energy they consume. The deadline will be 2016 for all public buildings.
The WWF comments “We commend the vision of the legislators in making zero net energy buildings the cornerstone of the revised directive,” said Arianna Vitali Roscini, WWF’s policy officer for energy conservation in buildings. “Technically and economically there is nothing standing in the way of a 2016 target for all new constructions, which could help the EU achieve the 2020 emissions reduction targets.”
The vote, revising a law aiming at improving energy performance in buildings, needs to be confirmed by the European Council later this year.
“There is huge potential for buildings to consume less energy and produce renewable energy on site” Vitali Roscini said. “Promotion of energy efficiency is a winning strategy for Europe. It improves energy security, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, encourages technology development and creates new jobs. This is a structural change within reach, it is up to political will to make it happen.”
WWF is also satisfied that energy efficiency standards will apply to all renovations, and not only to renovations of surfaces above 1,000 square meters, as it was in the previous law. This is particularly relevant because existing constructions represent the majority of the European building stock.
CORGI is dead, long live GAS SAFE04/04/2009 but excludes Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands.
The following link provides an overview of a landlords responsibilities in this respect-
http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/advice/renting_a_property/for_landlords.aspx EPC Choice completes its 5000th EPC10/02/2009 EPC Choice now act for a wide variety of both private and commercial clients. Ranging from individual landlords to property companies, including RSL's and Housing Associations. We have established a niche market in provision of our services to providers of temporary and emergency accomodation to Local Authorities.
Typical turnaround time are now sub 12 hours from instruction to delivery and this has created a new industry standard in this demanding sector.
There is still only one choice - EPC Choice Government to reveal green makeover for 7million homes09/02/2009 Government to reveal green makeover for 7m homes
Plans to be revealed at launch of consultation on heat and energy efficiency
Over 7m homes are expected to benefit from a government plan to cut carbon emissions from British households.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change is expected to reveal proposals on Thursday in a consultation on its heat and energy efficiency strategy.
More than a quarter of homes will receive the energy makeover which will cut fuel bills and reduce pollution from carbon dioxide.
DECC is expected to compare the refit to the 10-year process of fitting UK homes with gas central heating in the 1960s and 1970s.
The department will also announce measures to encourage households to install renewable energy systems such as solar photovoltaics and biomass.
Emissions from people’s homes make up 27% of total CO2 emissions, according to Friends of the Earth.
But cost is a continuing concern. While Gordon Brown has announced nearly £1bn for energy-saving initiatives, insulation and small-scale clean energy alone have been estimated to be between £2bn-12.9bn.
By Michael Willoughby
Governments presses ahead with "Day One" Hip Proposal10/12/2008 The most contentious of these measure will be the removal of temporary first day marketing from 6 April 2009 which means a basic' HIP must be in place before a property is marketed - providing certainty to consumers that a HIP will be available. Althoug, this will not prevent agents advising clients about properties they expect to be coming onto the market.
Other measures include-
Introduction of a Property Information Questionnaire providing basic, useful information about a property including a leasehold summary, within HIPs for all properties marketed for sale from 6 April 2009.
From 1 January 2009 making permanent the current arrangement whereby a copy of the Lease is the only additional requirement in the HIP for leasehold property sales
Ending the use of insurance in personal searches from 6 April 2009 so that consumers receive a better quality product to address the issue of buyers being advised to undertake a 'second search' as a consequence.
Inviting Ted Beardsall, former Deputy Chief Executive of the Land Registry, to convene a working group to consider how property searches might be made simpler and more easy to use for consumers and,
Establishing a working group to explore options for making sure that consumers have appropriate information on property condition, building on work by the Stakeholder Panel to develop market-led models that can be delivered by existing practitioners, including Home Inspectors. Drop Dead date still Live15/09/2008 In clarification, properties exempt for the requirement to have a HIP by virtue of having been on the markey prior to 1st August (or the latter dates for three and two bedroom properties) will NOT require a HIP but will require an EPC to be in place in order for marketing to continue. New PIQ for HIP01/08/2008 Improved information in HIPs will bring benefits for consumers
Published 29 July 2008
A proposal to further enhance the home buying and selling process for consumers by presenting information in a simpler way up front in a Home Information Pack, was announced today.
A consultation is underway into including a Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ) as a mandatory part of HIPs to improve the product for both buyers and sellers.
The questionnaire has been developed with the industry and is designed to provide information that is not only important for buyers to know but is also easy for sellers to provide without professional help. This will help reduce issues coming to light that delay or cause transactions to fail.
Housing Minister Caroline Flint said:
"Having the right information about a property at the beginning of the home buying process is essential if we are to reduce delays and cut down on wasted costs for both buyers and sellers.
"HIPs are an important first step in achieving greater efficiency and the Property Information Questionnaire will only improve on this, ensuring the buying and selling process is simpler for all."
The questionnaire would include information such as:
Building work carried out to the property;
Information on energy and utilities;
Details on parking arrangements;
Council tax banding.
The PIQ would be a simple form that is freely available to download from the Communities and Local Government and HIP provider websites.
If the consultation recommendations are accepted the new PIQ would become part of the HIP from 1 January 2009.
The quality of leasehold information provided in the HIP is also set to be improved. A consultation has begun into including more leasehold details in HIPs following recommendations by Ted Beardsall, deputy chief executive of HM Land Registry, who was asked to advise on leasehold information.
Leasehold information would also include details about the cost and use of leasehold property and a copy of the lease. At the moment a temporary provision only requires a copy of the lease to be included.
These changes will build on improvements already made to the home buying process. Earlier this year we announced we were working with the industry to improve the quality of services provided by property professionals, including ways of ensuring agents and HIP providers prepare the HIP as soon as possible so it is available to potential buyers early in the buying process.
New Guideline for Landlords over fire safety31/07/2008 New national home fire safety guidelines for landlords has been released aimed at cutting the number of deaths from house fires each year.
More than 300 people die from house fires each year with over 300,000 fires recorded according to figures for 2004/5.
The new guide, Housing – Fire Safety, was developed by Local Authority Coordinators of Regulatory Services, the Chief Fire Officers Association and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. The guidance applies to existing residential accommodation including single family houses, bedsits, shared houses and flats. It provides advice on how to keep residential buildings safe from fire, how to carry out a fire risk assessment and includes a range of case studies.
Landlords that follow the guidelines will be well placed to satisfy requirements set out under national fire safety legislation.
Geoffrey Theobald, chairman of LACORS, says: “It’s important that landlords carry out a fire risk assessment and make sure their properties have the right safety measures in place. Tenants have the right to expect that their accommodation is safe and that they will not be injured in a fire.
“Councils have an important role to play in fire safety and are working closely with fire and rescue authorities and local landlords to cut household fires, which claim more than 300 lives each year. But those landlords who intentionally flout the law can expect to face tough action in the courts.”
The National Landlords Association supports the guidance. Their chairman, David Salusbury, says: “With so much potentially confusing fire safety legislation now in force, this new LACORS guidance creates a single document setting out landlords’ obligations. Many landlords want to know what they need to install because they are following good practice and want to avoid the need for enforcement.”
Click on the link below to download a free copy of the guidance.
Lacors
Landlords keen to beat the rush28/07/2008 EPC CHOICE are establishing themselves as leading providers of EPCs to the rental market. With clients ranging from single Buy to Let investors through to Portfolio Landlords and residential investment companies.
We have signed contracts to provide EPCs for two prominent central London letting agents and are in advance negotiations to undertake EPCs for a 500+ unit residential investment company in NW London. First Day Marketing delayed...09/05/2008 Home Information Packs
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Caroline Flint): I am today laying amendments to the Home Information Pack Regulations to extend the temporary first day marketing provision, and to extend the temporary provision requiring HIPs to include the “Lease” only and to “authorise” other leasehold documents, from 1 June to 31 December 2008.
The temporary first day marketing provision allows a property to be marketed without a HIP where the documents required for inclusion in the HIP have been commissioned and paid for, or arrangement for payment been made and are expected to arrive within 28 days.
We introduced the temporary first day marketing provision in order to help smooth the implementation of HIPs, and our evidence shows that it has been effective in doing this. However, we believe that a further period of the flexibility provided by the measure would be prudent. I am, therefore, laying an order to amend the Home Information Packs Regulations to extend the provision from 1 June to 31 December 2008.
The temporary provision requiring HIPs to include the “Lease” only, and to “authorise” other leasehold documents was introduced in response to concerns about delays and additional costs in obtaining leasehold information. This provision is also due to expire on 31 May 2008.
At the time the provision was introduced we also commissioned Ted Beardsall, Deputy Chief Executive of the Land Registry, to undertake a short assessment of the scale and nature of the problems with leasehold information and to advise on possible solutions. Ted Beardsall’s assessment confirms that there are a number of longstanding issues in the provision and cost of leasehold information, which HIPs have thrown the spotlight on; agrees that the inclusion of all leasehold information prior to marketing would cause serious difficulties; and recommends further work to resolve them.
What is clear from the assessment is that it would be premature to lift the current temporary requirement for the lease only, before carrying out the further work it recommends. I am also, therefore, laying an order to amend the Home Information Pack Regulations to extend the temporary provision for leasehold requirements from 1 June until 31 December 2008.
In the interim period, I have asked Ted Beardsall to convene a working group of key industry representatives to develop the options identified in his assessment into practical solutions in respect of:
* the type of leasehold information that should be required within a HIP, and the form this should take, having regard to the information that buyers need, their availability and costs.
* practical steps for helping to establish good practice for landlord and managing agents in the provision of leasehold information.
The working group will report to the Housing Minister in order to prepare and introduce final measures from 1 January 2009.
Home Information Packs were introduced to bring useful information up front in the home buying and selling process to increase transparency and create a better consumer experience of buying and selling a home. We are already seeing positive benefits from HIPs:
* lower up front costs for first time buyers;
* greater competition in the property searches market leading to reductions in costs to consumers - over 80 local authorities now set lower searches fees, some by as much as £120;
* over 700, 000 homes now have Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs);
* on average £300 per dwelling saving if their EPC recommendations are implemented; and
* over 640,000 HIPs produced, the majority within 7 – 14 days.
The amendments I have announced today, together with the extension of insurance cover for property searches which I announced on 6 March, will bring all temporary measures within the same timescale, providing industry with the certainty that the implementation of HIPs should be complete from 31 December 2008.
However, it is clear from our Area Trials and analysis of our monitoring that more needs to be done to ensure that consumers realise the full benefits of HIPs. In particular, to ensure that consumers get to see and are able to use the HIP. Over the coming months, therefore, we will also take action to:
* further build on the quality of the HIP, working with industry in developing innovative solutions to enhance the current product; and
* ensure that consumers see and fully benefit from the information contained in the HIP early in the process, and encourage better practice standards and services consumers get.
Consumers want more general information about the property they are looking to buy – information they can relate to. Although, the current HIP contains information that can be helpful to consumers and professionals alike, it is clear that we can go further in providing consumers with easily accessible information that will help in their decision to buy a home. Information on access, boundaries, changes made to the property and fixtures and fittings are currently authorised for inclusion in the HIP. However, this information is not currently being provided as part of the majority of HIPs.
In order to maximise the potential of HIPs in providing consumers with the information they want, we will develop in partnership with the property professionals, means for capturing consumer friendly information for inclusion within the HIP. This will draw on the lessons learnt from our Area Trials and consumer focus groups.
Industry stakeholders are also actively developing complementary initiatives to build on the content of the HIP, including an “exchange ready pack” - a pack with consumer-facing documents and legal information, including a draft contract to enable swift exchange and completion once an offer has been accepted. We will continue to work with our Stakeholder Panel to consider this and other initiatives for building on the quality of the HIP.
We recognise that many agents are not showing prospective buyers the HIP and that consumers are not requesting to see it. We have asked the industry to respond to this consumer need by working with us to promote higher and consistent standards of practice that delivers better services to consumers, and to raise consumer awareness of the service standards they should expect and what they can do if things go wrong. In particular we will:
* work with our Stakeholder Panel to support the RICS, the Law Society, the NAEA and other stakeholders who are currently exploring what can be done to bring together best practice into a single set of standards that consumers can expect from property professionals in the home buying and selling process;
* work with the industry to ensure that agents and HIP providers understand and act on the requirement to prepare the “basic HIP” as soon as the EPC is produced, so that it is available to potential buyers early in the process; and
* consider what more might be needed to ensure that consumers are protected throughout the home buying and selling process.
I believe these measures will provide greater certainty and stability to consumers and industry about the operation of HIPs.
Code for Sustainable Homes01/05/2008 The Code for Sustainable Homes (the Code) is an assessment and rating system for new homes. It aims to improve the overall sustainability of new homes by establishing a single national framework within which the home building industry can design and construct homes to higher environmental standards.
It is not compulsory for every new home to be built to the Code. However, from 1 May 2008 it will be compulsory for every new home in England to have a rating against the Code and for information on this rating to be provided to prospective purchasers through the HIP. This rating will make it clear whether the home has been built to the Code or not, and if it has, what standard it has achieved.
To facilitate this, from 1 May 2008, the HIP will either have to contain i) a certificate (or interim certificate) showing the rating that the home has received in respect of the Code or ii) a nil-rated certificate showing that the home has only been designed to meet current Building Regulations.
Where a home has been built to the Code, a Code certificate showing the star rating will be available from the licensed Code assessor who carried out the assessment. Where the home has not been built to the Code, the nil-rated certificate, provided free of charge here, can be downloaded, completed and included in the HIP.
HIP net cast over New Property06/04/2008 The Housing Act 2004 (Commencement No.11) (England and Wales) Order 2008 was made on 13 March and comes into force on 6 April 2008. This completes the application of HIPs to all new build properties. The HIP duties currently apply to all types of property sale, including the sale of new homes but excluding homes built under the most recent Building Regulations (i.e. Regulation 17C of the Building Regulations 2006). We have previously announced the intention to extend the HIP duties to these properties from 6th April, when the requirement under the 2007 EPBD Regulation for all new homes to have a SAP-based EPC on construction come into effect, and the Order achieves this.
Key facts
From the 6 April 2008 all new homes will require an EPC and Recommendation Report when physically complete.
The EPC will be based on the SAP rating which is currently required to comply with Building Regulations. This demonstrates that new homes meet the targets for energy performance that are part of the Building Regulations.
The EPC must be produced by an Energy Assessor who is accredited for On Construction Energy Assessment. The EPC is based on SAP rather than RdSAP which is used for existing homes.
When the home is physically complete, an EPC should be produced and given to the owner of the home. Building Control will not issue a completion certificate until they are sure this has been done.
If you are marketing a home off-plan, you will need to have a PEA (Predicted Energy Assessment) in the HIP to provide to potential buyers. Once the home is physically complete the PEA in the HIP should be replaced with an EPC and Recommendation Report.
PEAs should be based on the predicted SAP rating for the home. This will be available from calculations done at the design stage and is a number between 1 and 100. A spreadsheet template is available to be able to represent the rating in a graphical form for potential buyers.
Each building within a development will require its own EPC (although reports can be cloned for identical dwellings and will not need to be inspected individually).
Read the leaflet: Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and New Homes: A Builder’s Guide at
http://www.home-information.info/doc?id=135
Whats in your HIP?30/03/2008 Confusion has arisen over the precise nature of the the documents required for the HIP, in particular relating to the Register.
Regulation 8(e) of the Home Information Pack (No.2) Regulations 2007 requires that the following documents be included in the Pack where the property (or part of it) is registered at Land Registry:
An official copy of the individual register relating to the property (made up of a property register, proprietorship register and typically a charges register); and an official copy of the title plan relating to the property.
Some HIP providers are including simply the Register View rather than the 'official copy' required by law.
For further information on what constitutes an ‘official copy’, go to
http://www.home-information.info/doc?id=137
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