EPC-Could they get the type of walls wrong?!

shardi2209

Hi, We are looking to buy a house and the seller and estate says that the walls are standard brick with no cavity insulation but EPC says that it is system built, which I believe means non-traditional build. Could the EPC be so wrong or are the sellers lying? Seems stupid as the survey will say if it is non-traditional. The other thing is that it is connected to another house that has had an epc done and it says that it is brick cavity wall (with insulation). Would a prefab be built connected to a normal brick house. I live in Bristol where there are still a lot of concrete houses.
Can someone put my mind at rest before I spend any money that EPC could be wrong and the sellers aren't trying to sneak a concrete house past me!

G_M

Of course.

EPCs are totally unreliable and should be largely ignored.

If you want to know what construction was used for a wall, ask a professional eg a surveyor.

Not a guy who went on a 2 day training course on how to fill in multiple choice quesions on a computer which then spews out an EPC.

shardi2209

That makes me feel a lot better. Thank you. Does the bank look at EPCs? Will I need to explain that it is a brick house or will they rely on their own valuation. I'm a first time buyer so concerned about paying for a survey only to find I can't progress as it's a non-traditional build. We do have a builder/contractor friend so hopefully taking him on our next viewing will put my mind at rest. But I'm glad that it is possible that they could have got it totally wrong!

Arthritic_Toe

shardi2209 wrote: »

That makes me feel a lot better. Thank you. Does the bank look at EPCs? Will I need to explain that it is a brick house or will they rely on their own valuation....

No, they won't give a monkeys about the EPC - its the survey valuation that counts. You need to clarify though with the seller at the outset whether it is or isnt standard construction. If it isn't, it may not be worth considering any further.

AdrianC

The EPC assessor walks around the place, looking and tapping. No more, no less. If he can't actually physically see an answer, then he will make an assumption.

"Non-traditional build" does not necessarily mean "unmortgageable" - it just means "non-traditional build". Some, and only some, non-trad build methods are inherently faulty, so unmortgageable.

IIWY, I'd start by positively identifying the construction method. There's a whole raft of ways in which YOU can make a start on that, by doing some research around planning applications if there are similar properties around or if it's even remotely recent-build. If it is a faulty non-standard construction place, then you should fairly easily identify that from the multiplicity of websites dealing with them.

Then, if you're in any doubt, get a surveyor to come and do a proper identification before any survey. If he says "Yep, faulty method", then the survey ends there and your bill should be relatively small. If he says "Not a problem", then there's very little added to the survey cost.

dc197

EPCs are crap.
My house's old one was rated higher than its newer one, even though I had loft insulation installed in between.
House dropped 4 points, but crossed into a lower band.