HIPS again

[Nemesis]

Posted this above in the sticky but putting here also:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6742315.stm

Hmmm.

 

[lindy]

Doesn't the survey you get done when you buy a house include an energy report or am I being thick?

I really cannot understand the purpose of a HIPS pack.

 

[Nemesis]

No it doesn't! But I'm totally unsure of the usefulness when selling a period building.

 

[Penners]

I really cannot understand the purpose of a HIPS pack.

Welcome to a very large club, Lindy.

 

[lindy]

My survey included an energy rating report (a SAP rating, estimated annual fuel bill and CO2 emissions statement). Mind you, was none to complimentary due to the properties age and recommended things I will certainly not do! I just ignored it. My pal has a new house all pvc'd up and sits in it with a t-shirt on in the middle of winter with the heating on 30!

I have lots of wooly jumpers and by the winter will be able to use my fires

 

[Nemesis]

Out of interest - what did it recommend you did?

 

[lindy]

The recommendations were:

Use energy saving lightbulbs

Install cavity wall insulation

Double glaze the single glazed windows

Fit a new double glazed front door

Plaster all the internal painted brick walls

Replace boiler with condesing combi boiler

Needless to say - happy with the first, might consider the last, the rest they can swivel!

 

[Flyfisher]

I really cannot understand the purpose of a HIPS pack.

Welcome to a very large club, Lindy.

It's quite simple really. They just weather the storm of criticism for a couple of years until people have got used to the new regime, then they introduce an 'energy efficiency' element to the council tax, which will be based on the HIP energy-efficiency rating. Of course, not every property in the land will have had a HIP report by then, but it'll become part of a 're-banding' exercise for all properties.

Naturally, this won't be presented as another tax-raising exercise, it will be a 'green initiative' to save the planet. :roll:

 

[Nemesis]

And you have to wonder how much energy would be saved in the wider sense if the recommendatiosns as listed above were implemented... and also the pay back time.

Grrrrr.

 

[NT]

The recommendations were:

Double glaze the single glazed windows

a suggestion unlikely to pay its way even in the entire life of the universe. Yet we're going to be forced to pay for this silly advice.


The purpose is to take more of our money.


NT

 

[ilikecobwebs]

Regards the boiler; we had ours serviced just recently....it's not a combi boiler, just a bog-standard oil-fired one standing at floor-level; and I asked the service engineer what he thought about all this hoo-ha regarding combi boilers. He reckoned that ours was more efficient than a combi-boiler, and quite honestly didn't have an awful lot of good things to say about them. He certainly didnt advise ripping out what we've got (was put in in 2000). In addition, he said it would be very tricky to fit one in our kitchen, since it would have to be against an outside wall; our boiler currently vents/ducts,(whatever you call it) into the old kitchen chimney. It would actually mean ripping out the whole kitchen and re-organising it; just for a flippin boiler.

 

[chuckey]

Ilikecobwebs, you can get a fan assisted flue boiler that takes its air and its exhaust via 35mm piping up to 30m away. I was thinking of getting one for my house until I bought this ere' cottage.
Frank

 

[ilikecobwebs]

Well, that's useful to know, though I've got enough on me plate with rewiring the house at present (well, someone else is, not me)........maybe at a later date, when my husband thinks of something else to update

 

[Penners]

when my husband thinks of something else to update

Ooooh - be very careful. If he's looking around for things to update.....!

 

[Nemesis]

Oh what larks:

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/buying_and_selling/article1935159.ece

 

[Penners]

So, let's get this straight:

* From June 1st you have been legally obliged to have a Home Information Pack to show propestive purchasers of your house

...except it's been delayed until 1st August

...except if your house has less than 4 bedrooms

...except the pack doesn't have to be actually available before contracts are exchanged

...except it may eventually be cut down to just an energy report.

Give me strength..... :roll:

 

[Nemesis]

And just when you get used to it all this site has been 'updated' too...

 

[Penners]

Yours has gone funny, too? Page formatting all over the place.

 

[Nemesis]

Things which were centred suddenly have been 'rationalised'...

 

[Flyfisher]

According to this article, among others, there is no legal definition of a bedroom and there is no need to market any house as having any 'bedrooms' at all. So, just market your house with 'x upstairs rooms' and save yourself the price of a HIP. In other words, HIPs are entirely optional.

Normally, I try very hard to see both sides of any decision but I'm really struggling to see what justification the government has for making such a mess of this whole issue. Surely they can't be so stupid - can they?

No doubt there are changes in the pipeline that will render HIPs unconditionally compulsory, but meanwhile the implementation is looking like a complete shambles.