There can be little doubt that without the vehicle provided by the Home Information Pack, the Energy Performance Certificate would have over the past year or so struggled. Its impact on reducing carbon emissions and on presenting home sellers and buyers with upfront information on the energy efficiency of property would have been far less. This can be stated with an air of confidence, given the outcome of a recent survey carried out by the OFT that shockingly disclosed that one out of every two properties in Northern Ireland, where there is no HIP, is marketed without an EPC!
The Conservative Party says it will retain the EPC and look to adopt the Northern Ireland model. This can only, given the Northern Ireland experience, strike fear in the hearts of many energy assessors as without the HIP there exists a real danger of assessors seeing less work as well as experiencing lower charges. As the market is currently flooded by assessors there would be commercial factors at play that could force the price of an EPC down even further.
This begs the question of how low can an energy assessor realistically afford to go when it comes to fixing a fee?
One assessor has carried out an analysis of the costing behind undertaking 521 EPCs over the last 8 months. Applying the average overheads incurred during this period to what is fast becoming an average ‘panel’ fee for an EPC of £30, the figures show:
‘Panel’ Fee £30.00
Less Overheads
Lodgement fee £-6.15
Accreditation fee £-2.50
PDA Fee £-2.00
Mileage Allowance £-3.17
CPD (£250pa 500 EPCs) £-0.50
Phone Costs £-1.00
Advertising £-0.14
Travel, meals £-0.19
Net fee per EPC = £10.65
The situation becomes even bleaker when applying this figure to the actual time involved in producing the £30 EPC.
Applying the fee to a 3 bedroom house, and a one off job, the time involved for straight forward EPC survey is:
Travel to and from site 30 minutes
Time on site 45 minutes
Administration 10 minutes
Total 85 minutes
The above produces an hourly rate of £7.52 which if then extrapolated out to an 8 hour day equals £60.14. Assuming there are 190 days during a working year (220 less 30 days for public and personal holidays) this gives rise to £11427pa gross wages – just £3,000 over the annual minimum wage!
However, to achieve this modest return the energy assessor would be required to carry out 1073 EPCs at £30 gross which works out at around 6 EPCs every working day. The question is how many DEAs are undertaking 6 EPCs a day every day of every week? Not many!
Some energy assessors believe that fees will increase if HIPs are abolished. The truth is that by removing the HIP work levels will fall and market pressure will force the EPC price down even further. At least the HIP has provided many energy assessors with the opportunity of maximising the return on their inspection with some earning around £100 to £150 on each transaction.
(Tags: Home Information Packs; Domestic Energy Assessors; Energy; HIPs; Home Inspectors; Conservative Party)
The Conservative Party says it will retain the EPC and look to adopt the Northern Ireland model. This can only, given the Northern Ireland experience, strike fear in the hearts of many energy assessors as without the HIP there exists a real danger of assessors seeing less work as well as experiencing lower charges. As the market is currently flooded by assessors there would be commercial factors at play that could force the price of an EPC down even further.
This begs the question of how low can an energy assessor realistically afford to go when it comes to fixing a fee?
One assessor has carried out an analysis of the costing behind undertaking 521 EPCs over the last 8 months. Applying the average overheads incurred during this period to what is fast becoming an average ‘panel’ fee for an EPC of £30, the figures show:
‘Panel’ Fee £30.00
Less Overheads
Lodgement fee £-6.15
Accreditation fee £-2.50
PDA Fee £-2.00
Mileage Allowance £-3.17
CPD (£250pa 500 EPCs) £-0.50
Phone Costs £-1.00
Advertising £-0.14
Travel, meals £-0.19
Net fee per EPC = £10.65
The situation becomes even bleaker when applying this figure to the actual time involved in producing the £30 EPC.
Applying the fee to a 3 bedroom house, and a one off job, the time involved for straight forward EPC survey is:
Travel to and from site 30 minutes
Time on site 45 minutes
Administration 10 minutes
Total 85 minutes
The above produces an hourly rate of £7.52 which if then extrapolated out to an 8 hour day equals £60.14. Assuming there are 190 days during a working year (220 less 30 days for public and personal holidays) this gives rise to £11427pa gross wages – just £3,000 over the annual minimum wage!
However, to achieve this modest return the energy assessor would be required to carry out 1073 EPCs at £30 gross which works out at around 6 EPCs every working day. The question is how many DEAs are undertaking 6 EPCs a day every day of every week? Not many!
Some energy assessors believe that fees will increase if HIPs are abolished. The truth is that by removing the HIP work levels will fall and market pressure will force the EPC price down even further. At least the HIP has provided many energy assessors with the opportunity of maximising the return on their inspection with some earning around £100 to £150 on each transaction.
(Tags: Home Information Packs; Domestic Energy Assessors; Energy; HIPs; Home Inspectors; Conservative Party)
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