GOVERNMENT FORCES CONSUMERS TO SPEND HUNDREDS OF EURO ON SUSPECT SERVICES

The Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute (IAVI) has today publicly called on the National Consumer Agency (NCA) to examine the introduction of the Building Energy Rating (BER) System in Ireland from a consumer viewpoint.

The Government, through Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), is forcing hard-pressed consumers to spend hundreds of euro on BER assessments conducted by individuals who have not yet passed the national competence test.

In its letter to the NCA, the IAVI has raised these and other serious issues for consumers and asked the agency to investigate where the real value for the consumer lies and to determine how reliable this information is for property buyers.

According to Simon Ensor of the IAVI National Council, “the BER system is a poorly-timed arrival in the Irish property sector. There are many question marks hanging over this compulsory and costly service.

“What’s worse, we believe that any potential value the BER scheme offers to property buyers and tenants has been significantly undermined by the manner in which it was introduced by SEI.

“SEI does not have the required number of trained and tested assessors to manage this programme. While it correctly states that all of its registered assessors have passed a training course exam, that’s only half the story. SEI has not told the public that hundreds of assessors are busily carrying out assessments despite not having completed the national test. Instead, it has issued hundreds of individuals with ‘provisional’ permission to carry out assessments – subject to them sitting the required national test later this year.”

“In a market estimated to cost consumers in excess of €70,000,000 annually, these people have been told they can work away and sit the test later. It is unacceptable that a State body can deem a test necessary and then ignore its own requirements at will.

“Remarkably, SEI has confirmed that if these assessors fail their test, the assessments and BER Certs they have issued will remain valid. The IAVI would like to know how this is possible if they have been proven incompetent?

“It is likely that we will see great inconsistency in the assessment process, with unsuitable ratings frequently applied. Assessors who are unsure of themselves before passing the exam may act conservatively and provide lower than justified ratings. If the SEI is correct in its view that this will affect house prices then vendors may achieve lower sale prices for no good reason.”

“A property can only have one cert, unless there have been changes to the property. Under the current system, we believe that many properties may carry incorrect certificates and that the only people to benefit will be lawyers who will have a field day, from which SEI cannot expect to be exempt.”

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For more information, please contact Carina O'Neill, Bracken Public Relations on 01 6773277/ 087 222 8124