I’ve been contacted recently by a number of local people who are qualified as Domestic Energy Assessors – having trained to carry out the assessments required by Home Information Packs, introduced by the government in 2007.
They are feeling very sore at the way they have been treated, and with good reason. They embarked on the training – which cost about £9000 – with an expectation that each assessment would produce a fee of around £80. In practice the fee has turned out to be closer to £25.
Home Condition reports were to be included as a compulsory part of the packs, but have remained optional – another reason that assessors have not been able to earn the amount that they anticipated.
Far more assessors have been trained than was originally envisaged and that, combined with the downturn in the property market, has meant that there is not enough work.
As a result they simply cannot earn a living nor can many of them repay the costs of their training.
And to add insult to injury – if the Conservatives are elected to government they have pledged to abolish HIPs. This would leave the thousands of assessors without any work at all.
HIPs are in essence a good idea – it makes sense to have a single pack of information about a property available to potential purchasers rather than carrying out multiple assessments. And energy assessments are a particularly good idea. But the way the government introduced the scheme has been a complete shambles – an object lesson in how to mess up a good thing.
