Energy Performance Certificates to Contain a Home Information Pack!

27th March 2007

With all the spin and ineptitude we have become accustomed to from this most incompetent and less than honest Government we now see it embark upon a very costly advertising exercise featuring full page adverts in the national press informing the general public that from the 1st June they must provide an Energy Efficiency Report before marketing their property. 

This is a fairly basic energy assessment of the property and of no great consequence for either buyers or sellers of property.  However, the Government, for reasons best known to itself makes no reference to the fact that a home Information Pack must include a copy of the legal title to prove ownership, local searches, which are normally obtained by the buyer together with leasehold details if appropriate and normal pre-contact enquiries.  This is far more fundamental than the provision of any Energy Efficiency Report.  The Government’s website states that the Home Information Packs will be free to house buyers but in the next sentence states that if they require a written copy they will probably have to pay for the privilege. 

With incredible irony, the Government are launching their advertising campaign for Energy Performance Certificates ahead of publishing the final regulations for industry members themselves! 

This combined with the fact that the Chancellor’s budget statement states that houses will have to be provided with an Energy Performance Certificate at point of sale rather than at point of marketing together with a woolly reference regarding a start date makes the position incredibly difficult to plan for.

As a progressive forward thinking independent Estate Agency, Manning Stainton welcomed the introduction of Home Information Packs including a Home Condition Report now we have to say we are totally bemused by the Government’s antics and await publication of the Government’s final regulations on the 29th March with less than wild excitement.

David Pank
Sales & Marketing Director
Manning Stainton Leeds & Wakefield