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House Inspectors will even check your light bulbs
Last updated at 22:52pm on 24.02.07
Inspectors collecting information for a Government database will be required to count how many long-life light bulbs there are in every house or flat put up for sale.
Up to 4,500 assessors, earning up to £80,000 a year, will take part in a huge shake-up of the housing market when it comes into effect in just over three months.
And documents seen by The Mail on Sunday show that the compulsory £200 survey will cover virtually every aspect of the history, construction and current condition of the property.
The Tories condemned the scheme as a potential stealth tax bringing higher council taxes for householders who have carried out home improvements.
From June 1, every home in England and Wales - about two million come on to the market each year - will have to have an Energy Performance Certificate provided by the vendor before it can be sold.
Otherwise sellers face prosecution by trading standards officers and a £200 fixed-penalty fine.
Ministers have portrayed the Home Information Pack scheme as a means of cutting carbon emissions and making it easier for householders to save on energy bills.
But now it has emerged that the 25-page questionnaire will demand minute details of properties.
The document - entitled Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure - was commissioned by the Environment Department from the Federation of Authorised Energy Rating Organisations to provide a 'rapid yet accurate assessment of the energy performance of an existing home'.
During their 45-minute checks inspectors will look at everything from the loft (how thick is the insulation?) to the conservatory (any 'excessive window area?).
They will go into every room to calculate the number of low-energy light bulbs and while in the kitchen they will even examine the cooker to see if has automatic ignition or a permanent pilot light.
Although the questionnaire is not in its final draft, Stephen O"Hara, head of Elmhurst Energy Systems involved in drawing it up, said any changes were likely to cover only detailed technical matters.
At the end of the survey, home-owners will be issued with a certificate grading their property's energy efficiency from A to G.
Then the detailed data will be sent by the inspector from a hand-held 'palm pilot' to a computer run by Ruth Kelly's Department for Communities and Local Government.
Access to this audit of the nation's housing stock will, say Ministers, be strictly controlled.
But the Conservatives believe the database will be raided by other Government departments to revalue homes for council tax.
Tory frontbencher Caroline Spelman said: "Under Gordon Brown we have seen a great deal of intrusion into people's lives for the purpose of taxing them.
"In Northern Ireland, when people put in a planning application it automatically alerts the Valuation Office that the property may be going up to a higher band.
"I don't believe Ministers when they say this is not going to happen in England. Ruth Kelly is an agent in Gordon Brown's strategy to recover more taxation from homeowners."
If so, the Chancellor won't be alone in seeing the survey as a money-making opportunity.
It means a bureaucratic structure of training courses, Government-approved qualifications and compulsory Criminal Records Bureau checks on the estimated 4,500 Home Inspectors and Domestic Energy Assessors needed to police the regulations.
Nearly 200 companies have been set up in the past two years to cash in.
Firms offering training courses estimate that inspectors will make about 12 home visits a week, earning £130 a time, giving them potential annual earnings of about £80,000.
Estate agent Nick Salmon, whose pressure group Splinta is co-ordinating opposition to the scheme, said: "This started off as a way of cleaning up the home-buying market and outlawing gazumping.
"But Ministers have started portraying it as an environmental issue because they are desperate to display their green credentials.
"Apparently home-buyers are so unintelligent that they need to be told in writing that double-cavity wall insulation and a modern boiler can save them money on fuel costs.
"Not enough inspectors have been trained and I predict chaos on June 1."
A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said: "Home Information Packs will provide home-buyers with proper energy information about their homes to help them tackle climate change and bring costs down, particularly for first-time buyers.
"Access to the Energy Performance Certificates and Home Condition Reports will be strictly controlled and restricted to buyers and sellers, their advisers, mortgage lenders, accreditation schemes monitoring the performance and quality of the reports, and trading standards officers."
What inspectors will do...
1. Note whether main walls are made of granite, sandstone, brick, timber frame or system-built.
2. Measure roof insulation at joist level.
3. Check how many windows are double glazed.
4. Count number of open fireplaces.
5. Check make of boiler under the EU,s SEDBUK (seasonal efficiency
of domestic boilers in the UK) regulation.
6. Look for any 'green' devices, such as solar panels.
7. Calculate number of low-energy light bulbs.
8. See whether house is heated by underfloor system or radiators.
9. Categorise type of material used to insulate hot-water cylinder.
10. Check whether cooker has automatic ignition or permanent pilot light.
11. Measure heat loss through roof.
12. Check for 'excessive window area' in larger houses and take precise measurements of conservatories and extensions.
13. Check how many 'habitable' rooms - categorised as living room, sitting room, dining room, bedroom and study - are heated.
Reader views (6)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
I live in a 100+ year old terraced house in a conservation area. As a consequence I am not allowed to install double gazing but have secondary glazing to my windows. The walls are mostly solid and thick. Will I be penalised because I probably have a high carbon footprint that does not measure up to the EU requirements. What relevance to the energy performance are the light bulbs as I will not be selling the house with the light bulbs.
- Ian, Yeovil
As one of the thousands of people currently training as Home Inspectors and Domestic Energy Assessors I'd like to point out
As correctly stated, the final energy "rating" and environmental impact of a property are calculated by the "Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure" more commonly known as RdSAP. This is not however, a 25 page questionnaire but a simplified version of very complex computer software (SAP) that has been used for new-build properties for several years. The data required for RdSAP is collected by means of a survey and includes, among other things, most of the key points that are listed at the end of the article.
With regards to "pilot light" or "automatic ignition" these are features of the boiler (if present) that are checked, not the cooker. A cooker is only taken into consideration if it includes a means of heating the property or supplying hot water, as with some range style cookers.
- Marcus Hunt, Portsmouth, England
I agree with the whole concept of the HIP but think that the full survey should have remained. The survey is far more detailed than the reports that RICS surveyors used to issue and of far more value to a buyer. Why shouldn't we be aware of what we are buying? Who would buy a second hand car without an MOT?
- T Davies, Potters Bar, Herts
The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) has to be introduced by the Government as instructed by a European Directive.
This shambolic Government have made a real pigs ear of implementing it and although the Tory party are bleating about it, they have not been forthcoming with a viable alternative to its implementation.
Originally the EPC was to be part of a Home Condition Report. This in my opinion was an excellent piece of legislation but was badly handled by the ODPM and latterly the DCLG after those with a vested interest, mortgage lenders, estate agents and solicitors cried foul to the Government and forced their hand by making the HCR voluntary from its previous mandatory status.
What about the poor consumer? My daughter (a 1st time buyer) was buying her house, she was advised to have a full survey at a cost of over £400. The report was damning and needed thousands to rectify the damp and rot. She tried to re-negotiate but the vendor wouldn't budge, which is perfectly within their rights. The sale fell through and the £400+ and solicitors fees lost her £800. A |Home Condition Report would have saved her and thousands of other people like her all this wasted money.
It is little wonder that the greedy fat cats with a vested interest were opposed to this!
- M Wolstenholme, Rotherham, England
This survey will at least help house owners and tenants to understand what their houses are built from, usually kept quiet by sellers. With drylined walls its now impossible with a tap of the hand to tell what materials have been used. The problems of timber frame in the future in terms of termite attack, summer overheating, flood damage, difficulty of extensions, shiort life etc mean that people muist have the right to know. I welcome the survey.
- Jonny Johnston, Corby, England
When I asked about training I was expected to agree to being paid £80.00 a go and being tied in to doing these on behalf of the training centre concerned. As to 12 a week , the mathematics do not stack up.
1.5 million house sales divided by 52 weeks divided by 4500 = 6 a week each at £80.00 a throw = £480.00 a week less expenses. As you can imagine the big estate agents employing one person to mop up more than their fair share of these then clearly for the individual energy assessor there will be even less to do.
So take off expenses and £18,000 a year would probably be more like it.
- Paul Lerner, Feltham, England.
