"Very few people in the property industry oppose the principle of EPC's but a huge majority oppose HIPs as the delivery mechanism and as a credible scheme. The government has been steamrollering this botched measure through with complete disregard to the original purpose of HIPs - improving the home buying process. They are now phasing the introduction on the basis of the number of trained domestic energy assessors available to produce the EPC's. Even this approach is flawed as there are no published figures showing how many of the accredited assessors will actually be carrying out the work and there is anecdotal evidence that a large percentage will practice part-time or not at all. We also don't know the geographical spread of trained assessors so if they are all in the south-east people in other areas may have a hard time finding one. Gordon Brown would be wise to call the scheme in for Review before August 1st when implementation is scheduled to begin. He could easily drop HIPs and still retain EPC's."

18th July 2007

Whilst on the face of it this vote again shows that their Lordships remain unconvinced that HIPs are the way forward, it should be remembered that this was a not for a fatal bill and as such the Government can totally ignore the decision. Nevertheless, yet again, the House of Lords has shown that they agree with many of the concerns continually expressed by the Association.

 We have immediately issued a press release calling, even at this late stage, for EPC’s to proceed but for the rest of the pack to be scrapped. We will wait to see any Government comment and I will report further in this week's newsletter.

Regards
Peter Bolton King
Chief Executive

 

We are in the National Association of Estate Agents.

I thought you might find this article from the NAEA interesting.

Simon

As you would expect the emails and telephones have been red hot with comments and questions from members, the public and the press.  Tesco has clearly moved away from its pilot idea of just providing a cheap portal for private sellers to now mixing this with a general property portal with agents’ properties as well.

Can I firstly please stress that the NAEA has in no way “endorsed” the Tesco site. We have had no discussion with them and clearly the primary aim of the site results in a potential loss of business to members. Tesco took it upon themselves to put a link to the NAEA under their “experts” section. We are currently taking legal advice and I will report further.

In the meantime, Fish4Homes had thought that advertising properties on the Tesco site would give additional exposure.    In retrospect, since the launch of the site I believe they decided that it does not fit in with their business model and have now terminated the agreement with Tesco.  However I understand that this does not immediately remove properties from the Tesco site and if fish4homes members are not happy and wish their properties to be immediately removed they should email mark.cooke@fish4.co.uk  or call 020 8600 7012 and your properties should be removed within 48 hours.

I am aware of one agent who through their lawyer threatened an injunction and got immediate action.

In answer to a question, Members should also be aware that their properties may be on Fish4 without them actually subscribing. This can happen if they advertise with a local newspaper that is in one of the three press groups that own Fish4. The papers upload ads.  It appears you could therefore be on Tesco without even realising it.

I also understand that any members who are uploading to smartnewhomes might also find their properties on the Tesco site.

Tesco appears to be offering elements, such as a For Sale Board, which the OFT have previously claimed to be one of their definitions of an Estate Agent. If this is the case then clearly Tesco have to abide by legislation such as the PMA and Estates Agents Act. This would give immediate problems if private sellers were uploading their own information. In addition if Tesco in any way handles HIPs and is deemed an agent they would also have to belong to a redress scheme, as they would once the CEAR Bill becomes law.  I understand that the OFT is currently considering the situation and will be making a statement shortly.

The NAEA is obviously in various discussions and is constantly monitoring the situation. I will report further next week.