Who will carry out the Energy Certificates?

dnwilliams

In only 3 months time, Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) will become mandatory for every property coming to the market. I’ve not met anyone who is yet qualified to carry these out. The implications of this could be disastrous with sellers having to wait weeks or dare I say months before someone can be commissioned to carry out an EPC.

Does any one know a qualified EPC inspector/surveyor?

reesla

I am training to become an EPC Inspector and should become qualified next month. I know that there are many firms that are investing heavily in training and recruitment ready for the nationwide roll out of the scheme.

RHemmings

reesla wrote:

I am training to become an EPC Inspector and should become qualified next month. I know that there are many firms that are investing heavily in training and recruitment ready for the nationwide roll out of the scheme.

Can you tell us more about what is involved in becoming an EPC inspector? I'm not planning to become one myself, but I'd be very interested to hear many of the details, what you do, how complex your training is, is it distance learning or on-site, etc.

prudryden

British Gas just did one for me on line for free. I thought my home's energy effenciency would be next to zero, but I was pleasantly surprised. I guess it was the 11" brick walls. Certainly not the original sash windows.

RHemmings

British gas did one for you online for free????

Is the result of that suitable for use in a HIP pack? Surely not, as otherwise there could be no complaints that there won't be a sufficient number of inspectors in time for June.

prudryden

RHemmings wrote:

British gas did one for you online for free????

Is the result of that suitable for use in a HIP pack? Surely not, as otherwise there could be no complaints that there won't be a sufficient number of inspectors in time for June.

Well, the questions were online. British Gas then sent me a nice report via post. Whether it would be suitable for use in an HIP pack, I don't know. I suppose the EU could say that British Gas hasn't been through their two week course or whatever, and, therefore, has insufficient knowledge of energy efficiency. Somewhat ironic isn't it!

RHemmings

prudryden wrote:

Well, the questions were online. British Gas then sent me a nice report via post. Whether it would be suitable for use in an HIP pack, I don't know. I suppose the EU could say that British Gas hasn't been through their two week course or whatever, and, therefore, has insufficient knowledge of energy efficiency. Somewhat ironic isn't it!

It would however give the government an "out" if they wanted the energy efficiency part of the HIP to go ahead, but there weren't enough inspectors to go around. They could say that online evaluations would be legal until such time as there are a sufficient number of inspectors.

courtjester

The official Energy Efficiency certificate included in the Home Information pack will have to be carried out in approved format by an authorised inspector - a self-analysis online will not comply and hence would not be sufficient to form part of the mandatory pack.

The question of availability of Home Inspectors was always one of the objections raised against introducing compulsory home information packs and it remains to be seen whether in practice there are enough. This is one of the reasons behind the removal of the full home survey from the requirements as there simply were'nt going to be enough inspectors qualified for building contruction surveys by the date of introduction (1/6/07). However, this will inevitably be added as a compulsory item at a later date.

Calculation and measurement for the energy efficiency certificate is much simpler and hence the likelihood is that having enough inspectors for this this will not prove to be an issue.

Organisations offering the training for the Home Inspector qualification have had to re-jig their courses following removal of the home condition survey element - quoted prices were in the order of £6,000-£10,000. I would expect that the cost for training to produce the energy certificate alone will be quite a bit less, but I have not seen any information on this.

dnwilliams

reesla, looks like you’re the only one. Perhaps you should take some tips from Santa Claus about how to visit hundreds and thousands of homes across the country single handed. Mind you at least you’ll get more than 24 hours to complete the mission!

prudryden

Perhaps, the govt. will eventually just say to British Gas and the other energy companies "We now authorize you, get on with it." After all, they have only being doing it for the last 100 years.

moneymummy

There's going to be more than one of us out there as both my husband and I are about to undertake the training! We have close friends who have taken on a franchise with Habitus, who are an established company who are recruiting and training. I believe a majority of the course is completed online and there are some training days. Apparently alot of the estate agents out there are under the belief that it still won't happen. Think they have a shock coming to them in June!