Mr Roofer

John Prescott has been busy. Finding himself something to do after his failed transport polices he has come up with: “The current home buying and selling process is slow, wasteful, stressful and causes far too much delay and failure. Home information packs are due to be introduced throughout England and Wales from the beginning of 2007 to tackle these problems. They will make the home buying and selling process more transparent, more certain, consumer friendly and faster”. And according to the ODPM the average cost of the home information pack will cost the house seller “on average £635.00″ to produce but “this is not an additional cost” since this money was spent before on survey reports etc. So, there we are then, totally reassured that we will not be spending any more money than before to sell our houses.

So with “industry” consultation but not actually, it seems, any consultation with the people actually footing the bill, house sellers, Prescott wants us to be only allowed to sell our houses with a “home information pack”. So he is has created the law to ensure this. I may be old fashioned and considered therefore cynical, but it seems the whole information pack scheme is another area of creeping Government control, control that will raise yet more taxes and create yet more Government jobs for the boys.

Let’s explore this information pack scheme further. As part of the home information pack something new has crept in that was not formerly part of the house selling process. Each domestic freehold property or domestic leasehold property with more than 21 years of the lease to run that is put up for sale in 2007 must include an energy efficiency statement. Details on who exactly will carry out this energy efficiency audit are a little vague as the Government intends to license “home inspectors” by a certification program. Home inspectors will presumably be competent to assess the property for energy efficiency which presupposes that there will be some kind of standard that the property is assessed against. Now these “home inspectors” will be licensed and controlled by the Government and you can’t sell your house without one. For license read annual renewal and payment of dues which means it is just another stealth tax ultimately on home owners. For “home inspector” read another body controlled by the Government where the house seller is totally dependent on because the law will say you have no where else to go. You will have to use Government controlled, certificated and licensed “home inspectors”. No mention yet if you disagree with the “home inspector” on what he writes about on your home so you can half guess it will be populated with little job worth’s types.

Building regulations are not retro active so this could be a back door method to put pressure onto sellers into upgrading the energy efficiency of their property. Installing better insulation, more thermally efficient appliances and so on will be required if the property is assessed as below the “modern energy efficiency standards”. Properties build before April 2006 will all likely fail the revised building regulations for energy efficiency as new regulations from that date will be introduced moving the goal posts significantly for insulation levels. So, virtually every UK property if assessed in 2007 will fail the energy audit if based upon the building regulations in force at that time. The pressure on the seller will be to ensure that they only get ticks against the energy efficiency audit. For most sellers this will typically mean upgrading the insulation levels within the property.

If the home fails the audit one of the best ways to beat the “energy efficiency statement” is to retro fit polyurethane foam to a pitched roof. Surprisingly, most houses do not have pitched roof insulation. This is ironic because this is the number one source of heat loss. Spray applied polyurethane foam is the best commercially available insulation enjoying a 2 to 8 times better insulation factor per depth over any other home insulation products. Also, polyurethane spray foam seals and draft proofs and eliminates condensation too. For most homes it can be fitted in a day and will last the life of the property proving to be an excellent investment, saving energy, saving money, providing a more comfortable home and will help save the planet for your grand children.

I don’t disagree with the Government for trying to raise insulation standards but I do disagree with the element of back door compulsion that I can see the home information pack will introduce by proxy. What if in the future the Government introduce legislation to say you cannot sell your home unless it meets a “standards minimum score”. Too late for us, they will already have the apparatus of control at work via licensed “home inspectors” and a tool they can forever tweak to suit their own agenda, “the home information pack”.

And the cost of Prescott’s good work will on average be £635.00 per house sold? Do me a favour! A licensed and certificated body of “home inspectors” is never likely to have a totally free market rate (as if we voted for them in the first place) and introducing “new checks to improve standards” (read stealth taxes) can only escalate the cost. 5 years from now the “home inspectors” report, will be more than double that of 2007 due to the license dues the Government will collect, a perfect stealth tax because the Government will claim it is not them charging you but home inspectors! Besides you can always shop around for a home inspector charging less. A bit like the legal profession really. I have a feeling that the present market method of selling a property, imperfect as it is, is actually a lower cost way of buying and selling for both parties, Come year 2010 or whenever, when to produce a home information pack costs you £2000 (I am not joking, it will get there) we will fondly remember the days of old as the best. But there again, I’m just an old fashioned type who refuses to move with the times so by definition is cynical. Remember, you read it here first and I told you so. Rant over!