Desperately seeking standards
Leave your properties energy assessment in trusted hands
The smart economy is a green economy.
So says the Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal set out by the Government for the next phase of Ireland’s economic development. It’s aim is to successfully address the severe economic situation we face, restore stability to the public finances, and begin the process of restoring competitiveness.
Therefore the recent launch of the Home Energy Saving Scheme is a very definite step in the right direction. Or so you might think. However, after speaking with several companies and individuals working in the BER Assessors area, we have come to the realisation that all is not as optimistic as we would like to believe.
For this reason GreenMe surveyed a sample of the industry to understand how grave the problem is. The results do not make for pleasant reading.
Survey Results:
87.5% are not satisfied with the level of compliance in the industry.
97.5% of those surveyed felt that the industry is oversaturated with qualified BER assessors. This is alarming as there is still a very high number of official courses available, each churning out several hundred qualified assessors every month.
60% consider the training deemed necessary to become a BER Assessor inadequate.
Examples given in survey;
‘‘There are too many unqualified assessors being trained to perform assessments. How can an accountant accurately assess a dwelling when he/she has no experience in construction methods, details of specifications?”
” The BER system is rapidly becoming a laughing matter with the general public who feel that they are being ripped off by unqualified rogues which is a shame because the ethos and spirit behind it is a noble one”.
”Assessors with no knowledge of construction can give advice which contradicts building regulations and be potentially damaging to building”.
77.5% are not happy with the lack of regulation in the industry.
Quotes and examples given in the survey include;
”People stating on the SEI database that they are qualified to carry out ‘existing dwellings’ assessments when they never even took an ‘existing dwellings’ course”.
”I have been audited only once and would welcome more of it”
”Auctioneers acting as independent BER Assessors while offering the property for sale. Estate agents offering free BERs to landlords in return for the letting and management contracts for their properties”.
”Websites offering A ratings for BERs if they are done with a particular company”
”Websites quoting prices that are not correct”
”Kick backs from suppliers to BER Assessors who have been specified on BER assessments”.
”Estate agents doing their own certs in house – not compliant with the code of contact”.
Other worrying survey results include…
37.8% of those surveyed had encountered misleading advertising relating to the BER industry
46.2% of those surveyed felt had come across malpractice in the industry
GreenMe makes a stand
In response to these frustrations, GreenMe have decided to compile Ireland’s first, definitive and trusted consumer guide to BER Assessors. We recognise the need to create a trusted platform.
With the help of Duncan Stewart we have put together a list of questions (the BER Green Barometer) to help property owners choose a BER Assessor that best suits their requirements. We are not afraid to ask the hard hitting questions which will give the consumer the transparency which is so badly needed.
GreenMe envisage that our trusted BER guide and directory will offer the first credible reference site in the industry. The GreenMe BER directory will help property owners confidently choose the right assessor for the right job.
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surely estate agents performing such assessments is illegal. Shouldn’t someone at least have architectural or engineering experience! This should be taken seriously or else the BER cert will become redundant and so will the qualifications. How can we as a country be taken seriously in the EU with regards to green issues if we cannot regulate the most basic of schemes. Well done green me for highlighting this issue and weeding out the bad from the good. If ever a green barometer is needed it is now!
Wonderful idea, badly needed, the prices of BER certification vary widely, and there seems to be little regulation to this process and those who perform it, it would be great to have a comprehensive nationwide list!!
I think that the most basic problem with the BER system is that the legal obligation is on the vendor to supply the BER certificate. If the obligation was on the buyer – obviously it would be in their interest to employ a suitably qualified assessor – cutting out the quickest, cheapest culture that seems to prevail.
Well done green me for highlighting the problems!
Another question is why do new dwellings for sale not advertise the BER rating as a matter of fact? Location, size, Ber rating, price?
Good question Rena. The lack of compliance in the industry is scandalous! I spoke with a lady today who bought an apartment in January of this year and is really disatisfied with the insulation as the rooms are really drafty. I asked her if she had recieved a BER rating at the time of purchase and surprise, surprise she didn’t. Consumers need to know that they are entitled to this at the time of purchase or rent and it is incumbant on the seller or the landlord to supply one. Indeed it is a legal requirement.
If, as you suggested the BER rating was stated along with the asking price etc, peoples awareness would increase and I think it would follow that sellers and landlords alike would pull up their socks. I will pass you comments onto Minister Gormley and SEI.
Indeed the results do not make for pleasant reading, but that is about the only correct statement you manage to make in this exercise in obfuscation; it is unpleasant but not for the reasons you think it to be. To begin with, just who are these “several companies and individuals” you speak of? This looks more like a cheap stunt to convey insider knowledge by invoking faceless, hence untraceable outfits. A stunt to suggest that the following survey is somehow credible even though there is nothing to suggest such. The biggest insult to intelligence is the survey itself and the manner by which you blatantly misuse percentage values to imply a faulty industry. For instance these percentage values are utterly without meaning when divorced from the total number of participants in the actual survey. To present such values without the participant numbers is nothing more than basic dishonesty to assist your own motives, motives I will come to. Then of course there is the issue of just who was surveyed, was the sample properly representative of the industry or chosen to supply the desired result? Without any information supplied about your survey no one can really know, it could have been akin to going into a Christian church and running a survey on who believes in Jesus; you just know what the result is going to be.
The selections that you then selectively chose to share with the world indicate nothing short of willful misdirection or incompetence.
“97.5% of those surveyed felt that the industry is oversaturated with qualified BER assessors. ”
Felt? Excuse me but what people ‘feel’ is quite irrelevant, this is a question of cold hard numbers; either it is high or it is not. Furthermore saturation is only a concern for those trying to make a living off of it, for the consumer the more there are creates choice and a competitive market. Anyone who thinks that their special industry should be capped so they can make more money has a spectacular naivety when it comes to business; this is a free market economy.
“This is alarming as there is still a very high number of official courses available, each churning out several hundred qualified assessors every month.”
Alarming in what possible manner? If I wish to provide a course and am qualified to do so then I may do so, that provides choice and competition for consumers wishing to be trained. Of course that is only part of what is wrong with that statement, the blatant lie of “several hundred a month” is the most serious transgression. Tell me, did you bother to fact check this statement, just choose to believe it as it helps your case, or make it up? The BER Assesor training industry was negligible at that time and is now practically dead, whilst I am not in possesion of actual industry figures, the one thing it is not is several hundred a month. A quick check of the SEI lists on training providers show a good number still advertising online, courses that are out of date and with little upcoming. This is not an industry rolling in the punters and churning em out, it is a trickle at best.
“60% consider the training deemed necessary to become a BER Assessor inadequate.”
Really! And who might they be, are they fully qualified training providers that have met both SEI’s and FETAC’s standards? As it stands without sufficient information I can only consider it to be no, just more fuzzy individuals that feel or consider, more unsubstantiated personal opinion being lauded about as though it meant something tangible. The bottom line of it is, misdirection
“37.8% of those surveyed had encountered misleading advertising relating to the BER industry”
You don’t say, why that just could not be, misleading advertising in an industry, well that is just unheard of! Is this yet more misdirection?
“46.2% of those surveyed felt had come across malpractice in the industry”
Oh dear, not that unsubstantiated ‘felt’ again. Another calculated sentence to imply a faulty industry whilst ducking any responsibility to back up the claims. I must also wonder what was the extent of the survey questions? Are there other areas that supply far more positive results that have been omitted?
Then we come to the last section, the ‘stand’, now it becomes clear. This is not a demonstration in incompetence but a calculated character assassination of the industry. The intention being to peddle this barometer, look it even comes with some name dropping to paste on a veneer of credibility and respectability.
With numbers supplied in isolation and no idea of any statistical significance, with no idea of who was asked, with questions that were clearly subjective, with cherry picked quotes and with your solution product hocked at the closing. This survey, or at least what has been related is insincere, a marketing gimmick. Given the contempt you display for your readers and competitors, by misuse of values the clear intention to manufacture a negative view; there is no reason that any trust could ever be placed in your directory, your recommendations would be best avoided.
Wonder how long this will be up, if it ever makes it that is.