EPC issue

sarah69696pink

We are selling our flat, and thought it was worth getting a new EPC as we’d made some changes including a new boiler and hive thermostat fitted,  we were surprised to find our EPC came out worse than the previous one when we bought it.  We did not have access to the loft which had not helped as realise he can’t rate the insulation without seeing it (although this was the same on previous EPC).   We noticed some clear issues on the certificate (e.g. size of flat was half what it should have been and windows were marked one star even though fairly new double glazing etc).  I emailed the assessor a number of questions about the ratings and pointed out the issues.  After chasing the assessor has made some changes (to windows rating and size of flat) but still ignored the questions I asked. Obviously I’m a bit annoyed to have paid out for an assessment which is showing the property as worse than it came out previously despite the fact we’ve made changes to its energy efficiency.  However I’ve now lost faith in the assessment as there were such obvious mistakes in the beginning.  So just wondered, does anyone know does the overall EPC rating get automatically generated based on the info put in (eg the stars you have?) Or is there room for error? And is it common for changes to be made and the ratings to come out worse? Finding it so hard to check anything e.g what would you need to do to get five star on main heating and main heating controls? Assume we have four star not five for windows as they are double not triple glazed?

Slithery

An EPC is unfortunately as accurate as waving your finger around in the air.

It all comes down to the individual inspector, for example if they can't access the loft they have to rate it anyway - one inspector may assume that it's fully insulated and give it 5 stars but the next might assume it has no insulation and give it 0 stars. Until the legal framework changes neither of them are wrong.

I'd say that you're very lucky if an EPC is within 40 points of the actual value.

sarah69696pink

Thanks realise now we may as well have saved our money and not updated the certificate.  Is there anywhere to see what the star ratings are equal to though and how you can find how these change the overall points? Our stars for the different elements are either the same or  higher than before but our overall numbered rating has gone down.  

AlwaysWanderlusting

sarah69696pink said:

Thanks realise now we may as well have saved our money and not updated the certificate.  Is there anywhere to see what the star ratings are equal to though and how you can find how these change the overall points? Our stars for the different elements are either the same or  higher than before but our overall numbered rating has gone down.  

I am also wondering this but think it may remain a mystery! I did a bit of investigating into the neighbouring properties of the one I'm in the process of buying right now and even if there is some standard guidance, it seems to me they can be interpreted very widely. All the properties are very similar externally and internally and the star ratings vary, even when based on the same observations. And if when the stars were the same, the end numbers were very different.