SNP plans to ban sales of house with gas boilers

[Temp]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/23/scotland-homes-sale-ban-swap-gas-boilers-heat-pumps-snp/

 

Homeowners in Scotland face being banned from selling their properties unless they swap gas boilers for heat pumps, under plans being considered by Humza Yousaf’s government.

 

From 2025, properties will need to meet Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C or above at certain trigger points, including a sale.

 

But the EPC ratings system will first be overhauled and more stringent green standards introduced, meaning some homes that currently achieve a C rating will be downgraded.

 

It is understood that this could include giving a lower score to homes heated by gas boilers, forcing some owners to install a low carbon source of heating such as a heat pump before they could sell.

 

Currently, EPC ratings take into account how costly it is to heat a home, but the Herald on Sunday warned reforms mean they could also include the type of heating.

 

Patrick Harvie, the green zero carbon buildings minister, said the Scottish Government wanted “all homes to reach new energy efficiency standards by no later than 2033”.

 

 

[nod]

Yet another government empty promise I’m still waiting see if gas boilers will be faded out in new homes by 2025 😂

[MR10]

Skimmed through the article, my initial take - is this another way maybe of getting home owners to improve insulation, glazing etc. to get an EPC C or better rating prior to selling? 

There are possibly other ways of achieving a C rating without installing a heat pump; solar thermal, solar PV. 

 

I'm sure there have been discussions on other threads on how house valuations should be linked to better insulated houses and public awareness or lack of it. Maybe this will start the conversation.

[TonyT]

Is there any websites/apps like you get for heat loss  but for EPC’s so you can see what you potentially get?

[IanR]

9 hours ago, Temp said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/23/scotland-homes-sale-ban-swap-gas-boilers-heat-pumps-snp/

 

Homeowners in Scotland face being banned from selling their properties unless they swap gas boilers for heat pumps, under plans being considered by Humza Yousaf’s government.

 

From 2025, properties will need to meet Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C or above at certain trigger points, including a sale.

 

Sounds like they are just delivering their "Heat in Buildings Strategy", announced a couple of years back.

 

 

UK Government announced a similar strategy, but were generally 1 or 2 years behind on each step.

[ProDave]

This has been coming down the tracks for some time, first for rental properties and now for sale.

 

It has been blatantly obvious to me for years, that a house with a poor EPC should be worth less than a house with a good EPC.  But that does not yet appear to be the case.  You still hear of people buying an old house with a poor EPC because it has "character" and then complain the first winter at how much it costs to heat, information clearly available in the EPC.

 

It is nearly 10 years since we decided to build our second self build, and it was obvious even then, that the only logical thing to do was aim for as close to passive house as I could, and I ended up with a house with an EPC rating of A94.  Our BCO even admitted it was the first A rated house he had seen. That in itself is shocking.

 

But I do feel sorry if people are not even able to sell a house even at a reduced price, unless the work is done first to upgrade it.  Preventing sale of assets is for me one step too far for any government in any country.

 

But it will be another nail in the SNP coffin which must nearly be shut by now.

[Kelvin]

The rising energy costs have made people more aware of their energy usage so they might well start to look at the EPC rating of houses as key metric in their buying decisions. The market itself might therefore determine the value of the property based on the EPC rating. The days of cheap energy are likely behind us. 

[AliG]

People clearly don't care about EPC's, paying premiums for stone built houses with massive hating bills due to "character"

 

A C-Rating would be crazy. A lot of houses would be very very difficult to get to C rating.

 

Surely it would be more sensible to do it gradually, you can sell E-rated houses at the moment, then you move to D then to C over time. But in reality for houses over 100 years old you have to decided whether to give them a dispensation. You can get them to C-ratng but it could be prohibitively expensive or damaging to the house.

 

The complaints about moving to AHSPs though are exaggerated. Assuming things are phased in over enough time, boilers will need replaced anyway. It will cost more to instal ASHPs, but the prices quoted ignore the fact that it is just the extra over the cost of a boiler that is an issue, not the total cost. 

 

TBH I have been tempted to install an ASHP whilst the £7500 grant is available in Scotland. It won't last forever. 

 

My brother owns a 2 bed apartment. Installing an ASHP in this will not be easy, already there is no power for people to have EVs. Government would be better addressing this kind of issue.

 

 

[andy500]

It’ll be interesting to see what happens when a fair chunk of Scottish voters realise the SNP have made their houses unsaleable.
A solid walled 1900’s house would need tens of thousands to get up to a C. A new ashp to replace the boiler won’t be enough.

Either they come up with 10-20k grants for PV, EWI etc, or they’ll be voted out. Just look at Uxbridge and ULEZ… 

[Dave Jones]

idiotic.

[RichardL]

IMHO

Phycology is all wrong to force the seller to do anything...
It's bad enough when they rush around and bodge decorating the place to sell it without forcing infrastructure changes too.

Your heart generally just isn't in it when moving out, just want to leave - unless you have that developer mindset.

[andy500]

30 minutes ago, RichardL said:

IMHO

Phycology is all wrong to force the seller to do anything...
It's bad enough when they rush around and bodge decorating the place to sell it without forcing infrastructure changes too.

Your heart generally just isn't in it when moving out, just want to leave - unless you have that developer mindset.

And as an ex-EPC assessor that's precisely why an EPCbefore sale is utterly pointless as nobody can be bothered improving efficiency when there's a new kitchen to fit or a drive to blockpave.

Things may have changed in the last few years but when I was doing EPCs early on in the scheme it was a complete waste of a sellers money.

I'd hope buyers now take at least a bit of notice of the ratings and how easy/hard it would be to improve.

[RichardL]

Phy above should have read Psy of course - but you get the drift!   (darned auto correct & me in a rush  )

[TonyT]

Didn’t know you could download EPC’s from a postcode search, very handy, done all the houses that have been sold recently in my street to compare  reviews.

 

 

 

[TonyT]

Haha, one recommends spending £4-6k on solar thermal to makes £25 a year annual savings…

 

must be drive by EPC’s done by solicitor’s mates..

 

 

 

[JohnMo]

On 23/07/2023 at 23:36, Temp said:

It is understood that this could include giving a lower score to homes heated by gas boilers, forcing some owners to install a low carbon source of heating such as a heat pump before they could sell

Gas will be given a worse CO2 score than electric. That's been floating about for ages.

 

"Forcing some owners" - doesn't mean all. Typical headline grabbing.

[Blooda]

There are 3 houses with heat pumps on our road and I have just looked at the EPC's  to look to be nosey for consistency......

 

Ours completed 2022 - Hot Water - "From main system" Rating Poor.

New Build completed 2015  - Hot Water - "From main system" Rating Average.

Old cottage [donar garden for 2015 new build] - Renovated around 2015 - "From main system" Rating Very Poor.