The EPC Maze?

EPC is a complete joke, just checked one of my properties where the EPC has expired... It says Floor - Suspended (assume minimal insulation)... Its a concrete floor, I mean the kitchen is vinyl, how can you go into a house and mistake a concrete floor for a suspended floor, it just beggers belief, apart from the obvious that a little bounce on your toes would have told you its not floor boards, there is no air bricks around the outside..

When it comes in I will be looking at properties that have been done recently and choosing an EPC assessor that is scoring the properties highly.. I would love to do an experiment and get 20 different EPC assessors to do an assessment on the same property without knowing what the others put..

Reply to the comment left by steve p at 26/03/2022 - 23:42
...my guess is none will be the same. Just goes to show what joke the whole process is.

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 28/03/2022 - 12:02
Yes it is a joke and in very poor taste in view of the serious implications.

In the long run we cannot tolerate a situation in which the right to let is dependent upon such an amateurish and flawed system.

Thank you everyone for your replies and suggestions. If anyone knows of an "on the ball" EPC assessor in the Southend area who won't make assumptions and who will make suggestions that will work with the actual structure, I would be pleased to hear from them.

Reply to the comment left by DougalBid at 29/03/2022 - 18:49You’ll struggle because of the ‘race-to-the-bottom’ undercutting all assessors are involved in. There’s no way someone doing them for £35-50 will spend anything like a decent amount of time doing a proper job…for starters, they need to fit 5 in per day. Secondly, because the assessment even allows for the assumption of zero insulation when ‘not easily being able to check’ (which has very quickly become ‘when can’t be bothered to check’), they’ve all figured it out and don’t even bother to carry their foldable ladders anymore. That and because up until now, no-one really cared about the EPC rating (and the few F or G rated properties weren’t particularly hard or expensive to reach band E). I suspect corruption and back-handers will win out and become the norm.
Why can’t the Govt. get ANYTHING right??

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 29/03/2022 - 20:38
Well said. Every time there is a problem to be addressed, it generates yet another parasitic bureaucracy who have been on a three day training course and call themselves "professionals". I see it in every walk of life. A permutation on this behaviour is the shutting down of an existing old boys club to be replaced by the same thing under a different banner and with an even greater socially destructive burden.
At all costs, acting on individual judgement is blocked at every level. "Process" trumps all.

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 29/03/2022 - 20:38
...or book in a 'cheapie' assessor and then make sure you totally go to town when they are there. Pick on everything, show them everything and demand to see their findings AND the info that fed into their SAP calculations spewed out the final rating and do not agree or accept anything until you are fully clear about why the rating is what it is. Don't forget you can always complain to their assessment body BEFORE they issue the final rating!
The outcome will mean 1. The assessor was made to do his/her job properly for you. 2 They will expect the same treatment next time when employed by another LL as everyone is getting wise to the value of scrutinising an EPC now - so hopefully do a better job for someone else. 3. If they get fired/decide to leave that's one less 'bad assessor' out there.

Another possibility is that you might get lucky and find an assessor with a brain who realises that if he keeps you happy, then he will get repeat business from yourself and other landlords that you speak to.
But you need to get lucky.
I have - twice. 🙂
There are some, unfortunately rare, switched on people out there who have carved out their own niche with repeat business in various forms of employment.
And then there are the idiots whom I just pay to get rid of.

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 30/03/2022 - 12:36
If you've a very large portfolio, don't expect that assessor would do anymore properties for you after the one you gave them grief about. If it were me as the assessor and the rest of the industry was just doing as I described, I'd say 'shove it' and simply not invoice you for the £35 assessment fee. All I've lost is the 30mins I spent whizzing around your property for the absolute bare essentials data.

I don't think it's acceptable, but it's the reality.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 30/03/2022 - 12:51
Nah, it's like insurance. You're the one that needs it. Whether you get it from them or another, you still gotta have it either way. Sure, you may go elsewhere, but the whole industry seems like it. Partly because if you were an assessor that did a thorough and proper job, you'd have to charge accordingly. Nobody would ever contact you if you were £100-150 a property (even if you did take all aspects into consideration).