Important changes to rules on EPCs have been postponed until next April.

They could have been implemented as early as next week, but are now set to kick in on April 6, 2012.

There have been few concessions in the much-delayed changes, but further guidance will be issued before next spring.

The only real concession, as already revealed on EAT, is that the requirement for agents, both sales and lettings, to attach an EPC report to all particulars has been toned down so that only the first page of the EPC will now have to be attached.

However, this is unlikely to please critics who point out that it will still mean having to produce and print another sheet of paper, and it will be almost immaterial as to whether it is printed on one or both sides.

Otherwise, agents will have to prove they have ordered an EPC before marketing, and will have seven days to produce an EPC – or a further 21 if they haven’t managed to do so, despite trying.

The changes in regulations will also mean that Trading Standards officers will have new powers to get agents to prove that they have commissioned an EPC when marketing a property without one. A number of ‘consequential changes’ to the role of Trading Standards, allowing them to enforce their new duties, will be made.

Where the property’s address has been omitted from the particulars, it will not be necessary to put the address on the EPC.

Proposed changes to EPCs have been watered down – but will not save agents on extra paper.

The requirement to attach a double-sided extract of the EPC has been amended, to just the first page of the EPC.

A source at CLG said that the change had been made in response to concerns about the original proposal.

Agents had pointed out that most particulars are produced on a double-side A4. The new requirement will still double the existing paperwork, but there will be less printing.

From next April, when the EPC is redesigned to flag up the Green Deal, the first page will also show the key recommendations and their cost implications.

In addition, the CLG source revealed that the department is working with Landmark to provide a solution that will enable agents to download copies of the EPC from the register free of charge, and without the need for them to invest in new software.

Changes to the EPC regulations were due to come into force on July 1, but the regulations failed to get clearance in time.

Although Parliament is now in recess, it is likely that the regulations will now be laid within the next few weeks, with the aim of bringing them into force on October 1.

The full proposed changes are below.

PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS (CERTIFICATES AND INSPECTIONS) (ENGLAND AND WALES) REGULATIONS 2007 (THE EPB REGULATIONS)

1. Summary of the changes to the EPB Regulations

The changes to the EPB Regulations can be summarised as follows:

    •    the changes will extend the current requirements to commission an EPC that apply to residential buildings to all residential and non residential buildings when sold or rented out;
    •    the requirements for the provision of an EPC with written particulars will be extended to all buildings sold or rented out and the option to attach the asset rating will be removed. The requirement will only extend to the first page of the EPC (the EPC consists of two pages, accompanied by four pages of recommendations); and
    •    the requirement for the statutory lodgement of air conditioning inspection reports onto the central EPC Register.

The following summary details the main changes that will be made in relation to EPCs.

2. Commissioning an EPC before marketing

A number of changes will be made to regulation 5A of the EPB Regulations. In general, the onus remains on the ‘relevant person’ (i.e. the seller or landlord) to commission an EPC before marketing. The main changes are as follows:

    •    the duty to commission an EPC before marketing will be extended to the sale and rent of residential and non-residential buildings;
    •    the current 28 day period within which an EPC is to be secured using ‘reasonable efforts’ will be reduced to 7 days;
    •    if after that 7 day period the EPC has not been secured the relevant person will have a further 21 days in which to do so.

3. Power to Require the Production of Documents

Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) currently have the power to require the ‘relevant person’ (i.e. the seller or landlord) to produce copies of the EPC for inspection and to take copies if necessary. The power to require the production of documents will be extended to include persons acting on behalf of the seller or landlord – e.g. estate agents and letting agents. This means, for example, that TSOs will be authorised to require estate agents to produce evidence showing that an EPC has been commissioned where they are marketing a building without one.

4 Clarifying when an EPC is required

This technical amendment to Regulation 5 is intended to remove the erroneous belief that the provision of the EPC can be delayed until shortly before the parties enter into a contract for sale or rent. This will be achieved by deleting the words “before entering into a contract to sell or rent the building or, if sooner” in Regulation 5(2)(b) of the EPB Regulations. 

5. Consequential changes

A number of consequential changes will be made to enable TSOs to enforce the new duties.

6. EPC Information in Written Particulars

Currently, for residential sales only, the relevant person or his agent is under a duty to either attach the EPC to written particulars or include the asset rating on those particulars.  The amendments will require the EPC to be attached to written particulars in relation to buildings sold or rented out. The option to include the asset rating will no longer apply.

The existing definition of ‘written particulars’ will be expanded to ensure that particulars produced for rented out buildings and commercial properties are captured by the new requirements. 

As an exception to this requirement, provision is made to allow the person subject to the duty to provide the written particulars to omit the address of the building from a copy of the EPC where the address has been omitted from those particulars.

7. Commencement

We had aimed to bring most of these proposed changes into force on 1 July, with the exception of the change described in paragraph 6 which would have taken effect in relation to properties marketed after 1st October 2011.

It has not been possible to introduce changes on 1 July, however, and it is now our intention to bring the changes into force as soon as possible.

Owners of new homes already benefit from energy efficient features that help keep their bills low, such as double-glazing, increased insulation, condensing boilers and solar panels.

NHBC offers further tips on reducing energy consumption and saving money as the headlines continue to be dominated by news of increasing energy prices.

- Don't leave electrical appliances on standby: televisions, stereos, computers and other items use electricity in standby mode, in some cases nearly half of what is used when actually in use.

- Upgrade your boiler:  consider a modern condensing boiler; all new homes come with this type fitted as standard as they are substantially more efficient.

- Regulate the use of your boiler: by using the timer and turning the thermostat down by just one degree, you can increase efficiency and gain substantial energy savings across the year.

- Don't forget to insulate: more than half the heat lost in an uninsulated home escapes through the walls or the roof.  New homes have 270mm of insulation, so check that your home meets this modern standard.  Loft insulation is effective for at least 40 years, and will pay for itself over and over again in that time.

- Use the fitted thermostat on radiators: these supplement the main boiler thermostat, and can also be installed on most older radiators by a competent plumber, helping to reduce excess heat in individual rooms.

- Unplug gadgets: some of the largest energy consumers in the home are often the most easily overlooked; chargers for phones and other gadgets use a lot of electricity when plugged in, even if the device isn't connected.

- Switch your energy supplier: in a competitive marketplace there are loads of deals on offer from the various gas and electricity suppliers that can give substantial savings over the course of a year - and consider switching to a green energy supplier if the environment is important to you.

- Check out appliance energy ratings: A-rated white goods such as washing machines and fridges use less energy and can save money over time.

- Change your washing habits: tumble dryers use a lot of electricity, so avoid where possible and run your washing machine on 30 degree cycles.
 
Simple housekeeping on energy consumption habits can have a significant impact on reducing your bills - and improve the environment.

Nearly one-third of housing sales fell through in the first half of this year, says a conveyancing firm.

1st Property Lawyers, a national conveyancing brand operated by My Home Move, said that 29% of sales collapsed, up from 21% two years ago.

The firm blamed the abolition of Home Information Packs as being one cause for the rise.

Mark Montgomery, commercial director at 1st Property Lawyers, said: “Sellers are now able to test the market without having to pay any upfront costs.”

As a result, he said, sellers felt less obligated to the sale.

He added: “Unfortunately, property transactions can and do fall through for a number of reasons.

“However, it is worrying that at a time when transactions are at an all-time low, the number of fall-throughs is increasing as nervousness in the market prevails.”

According to 1st Property Lawyers, 39% of deals collapsed because sellers took their homes off the market, many aborting the sales because they could not get the price they wanted.

A further 23% of deals fell through because buyers pulled out.

Many blamed concerns about falls in house prices, general economic uncertainty and job insecurity.

One in ten deals collapsed because the buyer could not get a mortgage.

Collapsed chains accounted for 9% of failed sales and poor surveys for 8%, while sellers deciding to let the property rather than sell it accounted for 6% of failed deals.

According to HMRC, there were 173,000 house sales in the UK in the first quarter, well down on the 459,000 in the last quarter of 2006 as the housing market neared its peak.

Montgomery said it was clear that more sellers are currently preferring to sit tight and watch how the situation develops.

EPCs will be reformed and households will be given a month’s holiday from council tax return for signing up to the Green Deal.

The latter is part of an incentive trial, which is being run with Homebase, which also offers vouchers for Homebase and Argos.

Other offers being trialled offer energy efficiency products at a discount if households club together to buy them, or community rewards.

The trials are launched in a new report from the Cabinet Office’s ‘behavioural insights team’, which also says how it will ‘refresh’ EPCs.

The report says it needs to reform EPCs because currently only 18% of house buyers report that they took any notice of them in deciding on their purchase, while only 17% act on the recommendations.

From next April, EPCs will have a different front page, which will signpost the Green Deal by showing which measures are available for grant-aid under the scheme,  and detail cost savings over three years, and not just environmental consequences.

It will show the current costs of lighting, heating and hot water, and the potential costs of all three, giving the total cost-saving over three years.

In addition, the front page will list the top three recommendations, with the suggestion that payback times may also be included.  

Further research on EPCs will be conducted by the behavioural insights team and Homebase.

Other ideas include setting up a network of Green Deal champions, and forthcoming work with Which? to examine what advice householders find most useful.

You can see the new-look EPCs in the report:

http://tinyurl.com/6yymob8

The 'refresh' of EPCs is not the only change mooted. CLG also wants estate agents and letting agents put an EPC report on all their marketing particulars, possibly from as early as this October, meaning extra costs of print and paper.  Have you taken part in the all-important SPLINTA survey yet? It's essential that if you have views, you make them plain now. Please refer back to previous story SPLINTA gets ready to fire up new campaign on EPCs

DEAs have criticised the postponement of the Government’s flagship Green Deal legislation, openly questioning whether it will ever happen.

There is also mounting concern over the commercialisation of the Green Deal, with fears that DIY firms, utility companies and supermarkets will exploit it to sell their own products.  

The Energy Bill, which should have been debated before Parliament’s summer break, has now been delayed.

Whilst energy secretary Chris Huhne has denied that the postponement will make any difference to the Green Deal coming into force in October next year, the delay means that the flagship scheme will not make it on to the statute books for many months.

Jim Gillespie, chief executive of the Institute of Domestic Energy Assessors, said: “Having met several weeks ago with members of the Green Deal team within the Dept of Energy & Climate Change, the Green Deal itself was so light on detail that I knew they could never achieve the roll-out timetable they put before me.

“The elephant in the room with the Green Deal is the prospect of ‘impartial advice’.

“To myself and many others within IDEA there is only one way to ensure advice and recommendations are impartial and that is to have the Green Deal Assessor, who conducts the ‘before and after EPCs’, as being a truly independent person.

“DECC however seem quite content to let huge market players control every step of the process and therefore rendering impartiality almost impossible to achieve, let alone demonstrate or police.

“Scottish & Southern Electric have made 800 doorstep sales staff redundant and closed down the entire operation after it was discovered that their sales force were allegedly using dubious sales tactics to elicit new business.

“Are government ministers really so naive that they don’t think exactly the same will happen if the utility companies employ staff who both conduct the EPC and then go on to give advice, recommendations and sell the eco refit measures to the end users?

“Equally worrying is the, as yet, unofficial announcement that the Kingfisher Group, owners of B&Q, have taken over one of the largest energy assessor accreditation schemes in the UK, namely NES, formerly NHER and SAVA.

“In short, the shopkeeper who will be selling Green Deal products now own the company which will train, accredit and pass on Green Deal inquiries to Green Deal Advisers through their business panel.

“How can this possibly be impartial?”

Gillespie is advising all its IDEA members not to fork out for Green Deal training, fearing a repeat of the fiasco when far too many DEAs signed up for training on the promise of work on a scale which has never materialised.

The Government is, however, ploughing ahead with Green Deal trials and changes to EPCs, due to kick in next April. See next story.

Do you want proposed changes to EPCs to go ahead?

Internet gremlins on Friday morning meant that many people were unable to access EAT or the online survey we have posted up. However, the survey is still very much live and we urge anyone with strong feelings to click on the link at the end of this article.

The major proposed change, now probably due to kick in on October 1, is that all agents (sales and lettings) will have to attach an extract of the EPC. This will add a further double-side A4 to your particulars – in other words, for most agents, doubling the size of particulars, and therefore doubling the amount of printing and paper.

The proposed extract is simply the first two pages of the EPC – and none of the recommendations.

Nick Salmon of SPLINTA believes this is neither logical nor environmentally friendly. He has suggested a far simpler solution to the Government – simply carry on incorporating the graphs in the particulars but add a paragraph advising people to read the full EPC, available from the agent, before a transaction.

Salmon’s suggestion was not, however, even mentioned by Communities and Local Government in its reply to him.

So, enter a new SPLINTA campaign?

Voting so far shows that around 60% of agents would boycott the new proposed requirement and almost 90% would back a new SPLINTA campaign.

Salmon also points out that the second page of an EPC is of little value to consumers. He said: “It simply contains a load of guff about details of the assessor and how the ratings are calculated plus a general paragraph on CO2 emissions.”

The campaign is not against EPCs as such: but it is aimed at giving consumers more sensible information while not tying up agents in expensive, unnecessary red tape.

You can also find the survey on the link below and we will keep you updated as to the results. Please make sure that you make your views loud and clear. If you don’t like the proposed changes, now is your chance to say so

The Government has abandoned attempts to introduce changes to EPC rules in less than a fortnight's time, on July 1.

A senior official at Communities and Local Government said yesterday that they had run out of time.

It is understood that the Regulatory Policy Committee, which scrutinises new regulations, has failed to give clearance.

The delay means that all the EPC changes are now likely to be introduced on October 1, provided that the required Statutory Instruments can be laid before Parliament prior to the summer recess.

The EPC changes would mean that letting agents, landlords and estate agents will have to observe new rules.

Currently, they are allowed to start marketing a property without an EPC provided one is ordered, with the expectation that an EPC is in place within 28 days. However, the existing regulations do not say what would happen if an EPC had not materialised in that time.

The new regulations will give agents (both sales and lettings) and landlords seven days to procure an EPC from when marketing starts, and a further 21 days if, for some reason, an EPC has not been procured.

The difference in the new regime will be that after 28 days, Trading Standards will be able to take action.

Another key difference will be that the EPC, not just the graphs, will have to be attached to all particulars, for both sales and rental properties.

Further changes to EPCs are due next year under European legislation. This will require the Government to introduce legislation requiring the energy rating to be included in all property adverts.

A consultation will be held to determine what a ‘property advert’ is – for example, whether it includes For Sale and To Let boards, or internet listings.

The main points are the EPC will be required within 7 days of commencement of marketing for property marketed after July 1st 2011 Trading Standards Officers are to be given more powers to request and enforce the EPC from agents and landlords/vendors The agents in both the residential and commercial market will now also be responsible for ensuring the EPC is available (currently this is not the case in the commercial market) The requirement to add the EPC to marketing material including the sales particulars, however, this has been delayed until October presumably to allow agents and portals to update their systems 

Below are the proposals from the Government.

PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS (CERTIFICATES AND INSPECTIONS) (ENGLAND AND WALES) REGULATIONS 2007 (THE EPB REGULATIONS)

1. Summary of the changes to the EPB Regulations

The changes to the EPB Regulations can be summarised as follows:the changes will extend the current requirements to commission an EPC that apply to residential buildings to all buildings sold or rented out;the requirements for the provision of an EPC with written particulars are extended to all buildings sold or rented out and the option to attach the asset rating is removed; andthe regime for lodgement of EPCs and DECs on the Register is extended to air conditioning inspection reports. 

The following summary details the main changes made in relation to EPCs. 

2. Commissioning an EPC before marketing

A number of changes are made to regulation 5A of the EPB Regulations. In general, the onus remains on the ‘relevant person' (i.e. the seller or landlord) to commission an EPC before marketing. The main changes are as follows:the duty to commission an EPC before marketing is extended to the sale and rent of residential and non-residential buildings;the current 28 day period within which an EPC is to be secured using ‘reasonable efforts' is reduced to 7 days;if after that 7 day period the EPC has not been secured the relevant person has a further 21 days to do so.

3. Power to Require the Production of Documents

TSOs currently have the power to require the 'relevant person' (i.e. the seller or landlord) to produce copies of the EPC for inspection and to take copies if necessary. The power to require the production of documents will be extended to include persons acting on behalf of the seller or landlord - e.g. estate agents and letting agents. This means, for example, that TSOs will be authorised to require estate agents to produce evidence showing that an EPC has been commissioned where they are marketing a building without one. 

4 Clarifying when an EPC is required

This technical amendment to Regulation 5 is intended to remove the erroneous belief that the provision of the EPC can be delayed until shortly before the parties enter into a contract for sale or rent. This will be achieved by deleting the words "before entering into a contract to sell or rent the building or, if sooner" in Regulation 5(2)(b) of the EPB Regulations.

5. Consequential changes

A number of consequential changes have been made to enable TSOs to enforce the new duties. 

6. EPC Information in Written Particulars

Currently, for residential sales only, the relevant person or his agent is under a duty to either attach the EPC to written particulars or include the asset rating on those particulars. The amendments to the EPB Regulations require the EPC to be attached to written particulars in relation to buildings sold or rented out. The option to include the asset rating will no longer apply.The existing definition of ‘written particulars' has been expanded to ensure that particulars produced for rented out buildings and commercial properties are captured by the new requirements.

7. Commencement

The changes described in paragraphs numbered 2 to 4 will have effect in relation to properties marketed after the expected coming into force date of 1st July 2011.The change described in paragraph 6 will have effect in relation to properties marketed after of 1st October 2011.