EPC

[Belboz]

Mods - please feel free to move this if it ought not to be here...

Any wise peeps on here able to say how much notice buyers take of these energy certificates.

I'd never heard of them until today. Been doing a bit of research and my house didn't come out very well.

Going to be selling in the next 12 months or so and was wondering how much it could impact the sale.

Thanks and a belated HNY to the experts here.

B

 

[JohnD]

you can improve your by topping up the insulation and fitting energy saving lamps. Cheap and easy. There used to be an online calculator on BG and SSE websites, but it seems to be gone now. If you find one, you can tinker with the inputs and see how to improve the rating.

I doubt buyers will be very interested, but will notice if the rating is surprisingly poor.

I've kept my old ones, and it went from D to C after changing the boiler and controls, but that would be an expensive fix. Loft and CWI were fairly cheap and have fast payback.

 

[Belboz]

Cheers JD. There is a very good calculator online which I used.

They recommend the same - energy saving bulbs throughout and topping up insulation - but that would still only up it from a D to a C.....

 

[JohnD]

I think C is pretty reasonable for a not-new house. Have a look at houses in your price range on estate agents websites.

I sold an Edwardian house a few years ago and it was E, with no suggestions even to make it a D.

Where did you find your calculator?

 

[Belboz]

My lack of cavity wall insulation doesn't help but it's my Baxi Bermuda which is the body blow...

Calculator here:

http://hec.est.org.uk/

 

[^woody^]

For a typical property, I don't know of any one who has taken more than a notional interest in an EPC - ie is there one in the sale pack.

Some buyers are interested whether the boiler is old or modern and if there is wall or loft insulation, but only because those are the questions that they think they need to ask.

If someone is buying an older property, it's just expected to be less insulated and less efficient, but it's never deal breaker.

Complete waste of time.

As an aside, my local royal mail depot has a grade g rating. A depot with open doors, and vans coming and going all hours. It could not be made any more efficient. The only reason it had a certificate is because the law says it must have one. No other benefit. It's the same for your house.

 

[Belboz]

Cheers Woody.

HM Gov seems intent on reminding everyone about the £200 fine for not having one.....sigh...

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I'd never heard of them until today.

Have you been living under a rock for the last decade?

 

[motorbiking]

worthless assessment by a largely clueless bunch of box tickers.

 

[Belboz]

Have you been living under a rock for the last decade?

Ahh...Freddy - I've missed your sparkling wit (NOT!)

TBH, I've known about energy ratings for appliances and such but, having lived in the same property for almost 30 years and never having sold any property, such things as EPCs didn't catch my attention.

Only now do I need to start learning what selling a house actually entails and I do so with some trepidation..

 

[tomfe]

While I do agree, everything has to start somewhere. When you buy a white good you look for A or A++++ or what ever they have got up to now.
The trouble is a lot of old housing stock should have been knocked down by now and built new.

 

[motorbiking]

The thing is - most of the content is based on assumption, so if you had added any internal insulation unless you can show receipts for the work they will ignore it.

 

[cheradenine]

They're total horse.

The EPC for the house I bought completely missed the fact it had been cavity insulated (despite it being noted on the council building control website, and visible holes where it'd been done).

I had to get them to re-state it, as I needed a 'D' to qualify for feed-in tariff.

I didn't mention that they had wrongly stated that there was loft insulation when there wasn't.

IME, as woody has said, buyers will care a bit if you have a very old boiler (which will make the rating worse) rather than the rating itself.

 

[Belboz]

Why would my wife make the rating worse??

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

They're total horse.

The EPC for the house I bought completely missed the fact it had been cavity insulated (despite it being noted on the council building control website, and visible holes where it'd been done).

I had to get them to re-state it, as I needed a 'D' to qualify for feed-in tariff.

I didn't mention that they had wrongly stated that there was loft insulation when there wasn't.

IME, as woody has said, buyers will care a bit if you have a very old boiler (which will make the rating worse) rather than the rating itself.

What you're all missing though is that typically an estate agent will organize the EPC and they may charge say £70, whilst the actual EPC assessor who has to visit your property, input the data and register the EPC etc will get maybe£30-40. It's no wonder they're ****e. I've paid for own previously, they get it bang on then! Though of course they're still baloney but at least they're slightly more acurate.