A petition to scrap EPCs has now gone live. By yesterday evening, it had attracted some 50 signatures in support but the petition will run until January 7 next year.
In 2007 the UK Government introduced EPCs (Energy Performance Certificates). The Housing Act 2004 made it a mandatory requirement that an energy assessment be made on all properties listed for sale in Britain and later this applied to rental properties too.
The reason for the introduction was the European Union Directive 2002/91/EC
Online agent Russell Quirk who has launched the petition said: “Simply, Britain was told it must adopt a regime of sending inspectors to all homes marketed for sale or to let, before they could be advertised – at an average total annual cost of £100m to the UK home seller and landlord.
“The resulting energy rating that the certificate assesses is of little help to either buyer or seller and has not proven to reduce energy consumption in any attempt to assist in mitigating the effects on the environment, as was the intention when first conceived by the European Commission.”
He described EPCs as “pointless pieces of bureaucratic wastefulness”, estimating that over 16m EPCs have been produced at a consumer cost of over £800m, based on 1.8m properties for sale each year and 1m listed to let.
The link to the official petition page is at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/139091
Signed – lets all do this and rid us of this huge waste of time and money!
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Would sign but given its Quirk I am reluctant to. He is not doing this as a benefit for the industry. He is doing this for self publicity.
More interested in hearing Nick’s plan for HIP’s before making any decisions.
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Russell must have had a relapse. EPC’s I’d imagine would be an upsell that cheaper list (not full service) agents would make a % revenue on. But don’t tell the investors 🙂
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I dutifully have the EPCs printed out in glorious Technicolor and left in each property.
They go in the tenant’s pack when they sign their agreement and receive their Deposit Protection Certificate from mydeposits and copies of gas and electrical certificates.
In ten years has any tenant even looked at the EPC? Not one.
It is time to let this go, much as I think it is a good idea and I look at it when acquiring a property.
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