Phew! Minister rejects move to make EICRs compulsory for homes sales
Trading standards has warned rogue agents in the West Midlands they could be penalised with heavy penalties.
Agents will be relieved to hear that the Government has rejected calls for an Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICR) to be completed before a home can be listed or marketed for sale.
The proposals, which are within the Domestic Premises (Electrical Safety Certificate) Bill introduced by Lord Foster of Bath, were debated in the Lords on Friday as part of its second reading.
It proposes to ‘require an electrical safety certificate to be provided to a prospective purchaser of domestic premises in specified circumstances; and for connected purposes’.
Lord Foster says it will require “an agent selling a property…to ensure that there is an EICR just as they have to ensure that there is an EPC” and during the debate claimed the support of Savills as well as Electrical Safety First, the London Fire Brigade and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
Referring to legislation already in place in England to require landlords to check a property’s electrics every five years, Foster added: “If all housing tenures — privately rented, socially rented and owner-occupied — are to be at the same high standard of electrical safety, this simple and widely supported Bill provides the missing bit of the jigsaw”.
Dashed
But his hopes for the Bill were dashed somewhat by the Government’s Deputy Chief Whip in the Lords, The Earl of Courtown (pictured).
He said: “To require all homes to have electrical safety certificates before they can be sold would delay homes being listed for sale, preventing owners from moving and buyers from buying their dream home.
“It would prolong the home buying and selling process, which is frustrating and costly for everyone involved, not least at a time when the property industry is already experiencing a shortage of properties for sale.”
He went on to say that the costs would be ‘overburdensome’ and that the Government’s ‘material information’ initiatives via Trading Standards, and post-Grenfell fire safety legislation for high-rise blocks, and a looming building safety regulatory, would achieve many of the aims that Lord Fosters Bill hoped achieve.
Foster countered that: “The cost of the checks I am proposing would be between £150 and £250. As a proportion of the cost of selling a property, that is a very small amount indeed.”
Read more about EICR.
The government – big and small needs to take a good look at itself – Grenfell was built for and administered by The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), who admitted that the cladding was wrongly approved by its own building control department. So maybe, before the MP’s of this country try to pass legislation that would have an affect on vendors, they might look to get their own house (or housing stock) in order.
“To require all homes to have electrical safety certificates before they can be sold would delay homes being listed for sale, preventing owners from moving and buyers from buying their dream home.
“It would prolong the home buying and selling process, which is frustrating and costly for everyone involved, not least at a time when the property industry is already experiencing a shortage of properties for sale.”
Totally clueless it takes a day to do an EICR test costing ~£200-300 (OK some remedial work might be needed but surely saftey comes first?
Tenants are OK – homeowners can fry!!
Or We can treat Landlords like crap, but we can’t have homeowners abiding by the same standards, they wun’t stand for it.