Estate Agents aargh!

[SwingingFromTheChanderlier]

AIBU? In the process of (trying to) sell our house.

I have just found out that we require an EP certificate in order to market the house. The house has been on the market for 3 weeks. The first I heard of it Was when I received a couple of calls from an EPC registered local company asking for an appointment. I said I wanted to wait as having trouble with paperwork on our mortgage. No one told me the importance or necessity at any time. I assumed it was required at solicitor stage, my last move was 10 years ago so this is not something I would have known!

I'm now trying to contact and get EPC people out asap. Worried I will be fined for what's more than an innocent mistake.

The Agents should have made this clear surely!

Your estate agents should have sorted this out on our behalf I think. I'd give them a call in the morning to follow it up.

Yes your estate agent should have advised this when they listed your property, it is standard procedure, I would be asking them why they have failed you at such an early stage.

Just for your reference (they should have told you this)
An EPC is required to be instructed prior to the property being marketed, it does not have to been returned
o For this purpose ‘instructed’ means an appointment booked with an Energy Assessor or a commitment to pay can
be demonstrated
 The EPC must be available within 7 days of marketing the property
o Unless there is a valid reason and every attempt has been made to get one in which case a further 21 days are allowed
o If following this extension there is still no EPC the property must be withdrawn from the market
 The EPC rating must be included in all advertising/commercial media. The requirement to include the front page has been
removed:
o Where there is room, for example the particulars, the graph should be included. Where there is not, for example
newspaper ads, the rating is sufficient
 It is both the property owner and the Agents responsibility to ensure an EPC has been ordered prior to marketing and that one is returned within the relevant timescales
 Failure to ensure either of the above can lead to a fine of £200 for each case

Thanks Luc28 I've read that and that's what has got me panicking!

The only reason I know about the EPC now is because a local company was trying to contact me so out of interest I searched online. So, the agents must have passed on my details but no they didn't say a word to me and I'm a stickler for doing things correctly!

Will be ordering one today but need it asap but I'm so cross! What makes it worse is that we are with multi agents!!!!

The EA should have given you their Terms of Business along with their market appraisal (valuation) letter. Somewhere, in either of those two documents, there should be mention of the EPC.

Although it seems curious that they didn't mention it to you verbally when you instructed them. But if you are with multi agents, maybe each of them thought one of the others had spoken to you about it?

You should be fine, now that you're going to book the appointment though.

Any half decent agent should have offered to arrange this for you. This is the link for checking if a provider is accredited. You should only have to pay around £50. www.epcregister.com

Honestly OP don't worry about it, one can easily be ordered. There might already be one on the EPC register (in which case just download it).

Google EPC register and choose "retrieve property report using address". If yours is not on there you can easily order one yourself, which will be cheaper than using the estate agents contact.

www.epcregister.com/reportSearchAddressByPostcode.html

Don't panic. I'm a conveyancing assistant and when we draft the contract papers to send to the buyer's solicitors, we would include the EPC as part of the paperwork. However, many times we send the draft papers without the EPC if it hasn't been supplied at that time. As long as it is supplied at some point during the transaction (obviously before exchange!), it is not a problem. The buyers solicitors will ask for it but there is plenty of time so don't worry. The buyers solicitors will be collating lots of information/papers in order to bring the process to exchange - what order it arrives in is not set in stone. Good luck!

Neither agent should presume you had an EPC they should check. I'd loose my job if I didn't let the customer know than an EPC was a legal requirement. Lots of agents make money on EPCS some charge £100 when the only really cost £25-£40 really! Shop around and have a look on the resister for any local assessors or online companies as long as you've booked an appointment your covered and they are usually very quick at producing the reports. I would definitely complain to both agents though it really is poor practice .

Thanks all, Hopefully I will be able to get someone out today.

After a fair few phone calls managed to get a local assessor to carry out the EPC inspection early evening. The assessor has just emailed the certificate to me. Great service at a fraction of the cost I was quoted by the estate agents preference!

Panic over should sleep tonight. Thanks all!

BTW it is a fairly useless document, don't expect too many people to look at it!

Just a reminder too that EPCs last ten years but do need updating if you have changed heating system, installed a new boiler or carried out Green Deal works.
When the EPC comes back to you double check the property address is right. Mistakes happen. But, as said, it's a pointless document that no one reads. Hurrah for the referendum when such time wasting directive enforced cobblers will cease if we brexit

Not sure they will go - I bet we will all get taxed on how energy efficient our houses are!