Does the UK have this requrement hanging over its housing stock?
In ireland there seems to be a well developed system for assessing houses, with an excel spreadsheet to boot.
Are we going to have to have this info on our houses at point of sale?
Will it start to determine our council tax band?
Who will do the rating? The estate agent? The Building control officer? The home owner?
Is this a new occupation, "house energy assessor"?
Philip
Yes, it's called RDSAP
Yes it will be a required part of the Home Information Pack
If parking permit prices and vehicle excise duty are to be determined by CO2, logically yes. But when did logic decide things?
Yes - see the following [PDF]
Seems like a good thing to get into - It takes 5-7 years to train as an architect or surveyor - at huge cost in fees and loss of earnings, but this is a readymade profession in just 8 days!
My son was thinking of architecture as a carrer - I'm pointing him in this direction!
Philip
Tony, just been looking on your website at Superheat 6
This is a bit frightening. I am thinking of buying a 1920's Bungalow in need of a huge amount of renovation. It has concrete block walls (single block) with hardboard battend internal lining. The windows are single glazed and the loft has no insulation.
I can afford some of the changes, e.g. loft insulation, but It would be prohibitively expensive to build a secondary skin with insulation.
What would selling this house in 10 years time be like? is someone going to come round with your program and see if it 'complies'? I cannot work out what the TERS figures you are aiming for are or how you calculate them.
This could seriously affect resale values and therfore I am reconsidering my buying decision. Am i right to be worried?
Philip
The intention is that by requiring the information to be put in front of people may change their buying intentions and/or persuade them to make improvements to energy efficiency.
With cars there has been a requirement to display mpg figures for the last 25? years, yet I am not sure that anyone took any notice. That is changing now, with company car tax depending on CO2, likewise vehicle excise duty. Somehow I don't see Council Tax being graded according to energy efficiency - too many influential people living in period houses.
The one thing that could have an effect would be a dramatic change in energy prices. If new house A will cost £250p.a. for heat and light and similarly sized old house B will cost £1000, you will probably choose the house you like best regardless. If it were £1000 v. £4000 then you might think again.
The DER/TER compliance numbers only relate to new dwellings. For existing ones on resale you will only have to say how good or bad the house is. Of course if it is really bad it may depress the selling price, which in turn might encourage the seller to make some improvements, but as you suggest a lot of older properties with solid walls and uninsulated floors cannot be economically improved to any extent.
I wouldn't bet on it. There's already been talking of tax being charged as a %age of assessed house value, with extra "premiums" for having the audacity to live in a conservation area (which usually puts the value up anyway). Plus, having a nice view, double glazing, etc etc (again, all aspects that increase value).
The first oik to arrive on my doorstep with a digital camera in hand demanding to be allowed in to take pictures for record purposes will be summarily marched off my land.
Thats a point, will I legally have to allow an assessor into my house?
Philip
That's what has been suggested. Much as I would resist the whole exercise, I might let them in to assess my house. But if they want or demand to take photos, I will escort them off the premises. *Who* would want any local government employee to have the ability to look at photos of your personal belongings sitting on one of HMG's woeful IT systems with all that that implies by way of reliability and security ? The very notion tramples all over any idea of personal privacy. El Presidente and his followers are contemptuous of any civil "rights" when set aside their idea of what is "good" for the state.
They probably already have a statutory right of entry. In my BCO days someone from the District Valuer's office would come in periodically and go through all the extension plans and take off measurements etc for re-rating purposes. These days, a lot of extensions are built off Building Notices so there my be no such data.
What really irritates me about the tabloid hysteria on this subject is that we either determine Council Tax by reference to property values, local income tax (LibDem) or in some other unspecified way (the NoPolicy Party). If it is to be done by property value then values will need to be assessed by inspection and owners of houses with extensions, nice views, easy parking outside etc will pay more.
Or one could do something imaginative. You just tell the Council what you think your property is worth and pay CT on it at 0.5% or whatever
- no inspections, photos etc. The gotcha is that the Council has the right to buy it off you for the price you nominate + 10%.
On 13 Dec 2006 10:32:09 -0800 someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com wrote this:-
Two shags, before he lost his job (but not the wages for doing the job), suggested you would legally be obliged to let this bod poke his or her nose around the whole of your house.
It's already assessed by value - just that the value is banded rather than being more exactly "determined". One advantage of banding is that it cuts down the amount of arguing. What has been proposed (iirc) is that *extra* tax may be levied on certain features, such as being in a conservation area. That's a lump of extra tax, not a percentage increase on a lump of extra value. I can see no justification for this. It just smacks of envy.
Don't go giving them any more ideas. Government is supposed to be by consent, and they have no rights and no money of their own.
I can't see this being financially possible - most cheap 'surveys' now just consist of a 'drive-by' (I bet they don't even do that now, just type the postcode into google earth!) for =A380-150. How much would it cost to get this done? - quite a bit - looking at superheat 6 - it would take quite some time to complete all the fields.
Perhaps they will just have 5 ratings, and put every house into one of these ratings down to it's known construction (e.g. terraced, semi, detached...) and people can appeal it if they want.
Anyway - I have found a supplier of external wall insulation, they just clag it on to the outside of the house wall and render it. It is supposed to be =A31800 for a 'typical semi' and the bext way to insulate cos the concrete acts as a thermal store if it's a internal wall.
Philip
Yup. All part of the 'lets tax the rich who don't spend, but save up' mentality.
Tax the spend! Not the work and not the savings..
Apart from the "rich" bit, fully agree. The true "rich" can avoid much tax, one way or another.
The problem is, we currently have a Chancellor who is clearly of the opinion that we should be pathetically grateful for what little he lets us keep from what we earn, and that overall it'd be better if he took all of it and then graciously decided how and when to hand some back, while dribbling the rest away through his fingers as he passes it from one wasteful public body to another, cheerfully informing us how it is in fact all "investment".
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