They Think its all Over... it is Now

Well, Grant Schapps kept his promise and yesterday suspended Home Information Packs.  Whilst the industry went into frenzy the news barely caused a ripple with the general public and only managed a mention in the main news programmes.  And I guess that just about sums up what people in general thought about them,; not a lot. 

So its the first day of a post HIP world, a world which has a whole new set of challenges facing the plucky DEA.  But first of all let’s spare a thought for those thousands of people who lost their livelihoods yesterday.  Whether you loved them or loathed them HIPS kept a lot of people in work during one of the hardest recessions in a generation. 

As DEAs we have another headache this morning and that is re-engineering our routes to market.  I guess many people like me have built relationships with local solicitors or worked with panels to bring in a steady flow of work.  Whilst the panels did at last provide some work it was never particularly profitable so no real loss there.  As to the solicitors, they always paid well and on time and I for one will miss them.

Like many of you I am sure you were busy contacting estate agents yesterday to offer your services direct.  Now that solicitors will no longer be instructed by vendors its this community that will be providing the work in future.  Well, I have to say that my morning was very positive.  The agents I spoke to just didn’t know what to do and the offer of “business as usual” was gratefully snapped up. 

Yes, there was some haggling and our fees have suffered a little bit of a drop (estate agents unlike solicitors love a bargain) but in return I estimate that our transaction levels are about to improve by 70-80%!  Another beneficial side effect of this brave new world is that we now get to deal directly with the person selling the property instead of middlemen like solicitors and panels.

Will the public start using the Internet and instructing DEAs directly to get an EPC Certificate?  I don’t think that’s going to happen. After all when HIPS were alive most vendors simply used their agent’s offering or went with their recommendation.  We have a pretty good website, well optimised that regularly comes out in the top five results and in the last three years we have had three enquiries and one instruction so I am not holding my breath.

So, predictions for the future?  The DEAs who will weather this storm will be the ones that understand the need to get out there and prospect for new business, offer compelling propositions and deliver value for money.  As ever, those who cant, or dont want to, will continue to struggle. 

 


Comments

Hi

Submitted by CATHERINE on Fri, 04/06/2010 - 13:12.

Hi All

Sorry it has taken me sometime to put my comments in.  I personally have managed to keep going purely by offering extra services and trying to keep my prices realistic but not going down the very low rate.  I have also lost a lot of business with private property companies going out of business but I am still here and focusing on the next step. 

With the HIP now going and just the EPC certificate to concentrate on, it will be the Estate Agents who will get the most of the work and will try and dictate the price.   I do some work for agents and solcitors but I do think it is about time we all set a minimum price and what we are worth and stopped this lower price now their are no HIP panels. 

We can do it, we just need to stick with it. Some businesses will say no and some will say yes but in the end they we all pay a reasonable amount especially if a mininmum price of £50 was set and it went up per extra bedroom, which is what I do. 

We do not need these companies that expect us to work for nothing.  I do not work for them but if no one did then we could set the price and maybe have DEA's having our own network locally then it may work but we all need to join.

What I do not understand is how can anyone carry out this work for £30.  If you have a family to look after how can you go out on this price.  I do not have a family and I cannot manage on so little.  We have an opportunity to set a minimum price now and if everyone in different counties got together and agreed to do this, it may just work. 

Maybe you will think this is not possible or unrealistic but I do not, I charge a fair price but I know if we all stuck with it we may all get a little more work.

Anyway good to read the comments and I should get on here a little more, see you soon . 

Whilst I agree with

Submitted by chrisiread on Mon, 07/06/2010 - 07:37.

Whilst I agree with Catherine about low fees there is no way they will ever go away.  There isnt a single industry in the country where the participants (ie the competition) get together to agree minimum pricing.  In fact its illegal!  If you put your customer hat on for a moment, how would you like it if all the supermarkets got together and agree minimum pricing, or the petrol companies, or the power companies?  Price fixing just isnt practical and I would argue it isnt desirable.

Natural Selection is what will favour those of us that charge realistic prices, deliver added value services and concentrate on offering the best value for money.  The people working for £30.00 a survey will slowly but surely go out of business.  If they dont its clear that you can earn a living from these rates and maybe we should all be looking at how they do it!   We are always seeing messages from people on these boards about how they dont charge these fees.  It would be good to see someone who does come on and put forward a defence for low fees!  It would be good to have a debate.

In the meantime, a local agent I was chatting to the other day said that they didnt care how much we charged as long as we turned up when we promised, looked presentable and didnt steal any of the customer's belongings!  I don't know who they have been working with in the past but maybe its one of those people charging £30.00 looking to augment their meagre incomes!

Hip's are dead long live the EPC!!!!!

Submitted by Charles Stanswood on Mon, 24/05/2010 - 12:19.

 

Have spoken to all my estate agent buddies (was one for 30 years ) !!!!. No problems with buisness, they are very happy to use me, picked up a couple of other agents who contacted me !!!. As you say a few of them wanted a deal but no problem sorting them out, still getting a bit of buisness from the soloicitors mainly probate sales.

The agents I have spoken to want the Energy Performance Certificate done ASAP as they want to put it straight on the datails & not have to do different sets, so an EPC certificate for first day marketing is a must for most of them, only problem is getting the owner/vendor sorted out, also payments can be a little difficult from some people, may have to send out a reminder, but came across a lady assessor in London who would not release the EPC untill payment had cleared !!???

All the best to everybody !!

Charles Stanswood.

New Forest Energy Surveyors.....

 

Good to see that other

Submitted by chrisiread on Mon, 24/05/2010 - 14:58.

Good to see that other assessors are picking up business from the demise of HIPS.  As always its the people that get out there and put themselves about that get the business.  I think we all need to take a leaf out of Charles' book and be proactive instead of boiling the message boards with how the government is short sighted, its an opportunity missed, blah, blah.

So get out there people!  There is business to be won and no more middlemen to get in the way.

EPC's Does anyone care about enforcement?

Submitted by askmw1st on Mon, 24/05/2010 - 09:40.

Firstly my thoughts go out to our colleagues on the mainland who at the stroke of a pen have had thier livelyhood changed dramatically. Here in Northern Ireland as you will all know we did not enter the world of HIP's and therefore are unaffected by the recent change.

However the EPC world has not improved much since inception. Enforcement is a joke whether that be by the Department of Finance and Personnel or more recently by District Councils. The best I have seen is letters to vendors from the Department asking for sight of the EPC for the property marketed for sale or rent. I am not aware of any prosecutions!

DATA Protection issues still hamper valid targetting by DEA's. Property sites and Estate Agents brochures seldom carry details of EPC certificate. Therefore there is no way of knowing who has or has not obtained an EPC. I am aware of many properties on the market for more than 18 months which do not have an EPC, I only know this because vendors have admitted this working on the premise if they get a sale they will get an EPC. The Law is very clear about when an energy performance certificate is required as are the penalty charges but does anyone in authority really care?

Is anything going to change under our new 'greener' government? I am not holding my breath!

If I have missed a trick or misunderstood the Law and procedures please let me know. I work independently, my rates are very competitive and my service I believe is both personal and professional.

Good luck to you all, here's hoping things improve.


If you are relying on

Submitted by chrisiread on Mon, 24/05/2010 - 15:05.

If you are relying on trading standards to make people get EPCs in order to build a healthy market place forget it.  Trading standards have never built a market in their lives.  Yes, markets are created through government legislation but mostly they are created by demand. 

Instead of waiting around for your local TSOs to do your marketing for you why not contact the press, local radio stations, etc and start to raise awareness of what EPCs are and what they can do for you.  How about offering a local agent the first three for free and getting them to advertise the fact that all of their properties come with an EPC.  Who knows they might even offer them for free and share some risk and reward with you if they catch on?

I am afraid if it was a ssimple as handing over a couple of grand, passing a test and then sitting back while the government forced consumers to buy your product we would all be rich by now.  I'm afraid you have to get out there and make a market.  If the worse comes to the worse and you know people are breaking the law, report them to your TSO and insist that they take action.  That might get people a little more interested.

Hi all, In my opinion,

Submitted by Pushpinder on Sun, 23/05/2010 - 20:37.

Hi all, In my opinion, Estate agents seem to be as gutted as DEA's about this suspension, the long faces dont cover the fact that they made as much money as the DEA creating the HIP, for doing no work. Possibly even cash in hand. So they will charge more for an EPC to keep this nice little earner, which is bad as the seller may find a cheaper quote eslewhere.

As far as Grant Schapps and his personal issues with HIP's (Possibly had to get one and couldnt claim it against MP's expenses) are concerned, screw him he is a liar. He quoted 3 months of consultation, not 3 days.

Its a policy both parties agreed on and one they used to show great political alignment and cohesion to the members of public. Its just a shame that lots of DEA's with families havent slept right for 3 nights. I hope and think that getting a HIP will become a convention rather than a law, and this can happen if the agents push it as helpful for marketing or securing a successful sale.

Snowballs chance in hell I'm

Submitted by chrisiread on Mon, 24/05/2010 - 15:15.

Snowballs chance in hell I'm afraid.  As an ex-estate agent myself I know that they want nothing to get in the way of them marketing a property.  HIPS never helped them complete a sale and often stopped vendors coming to market.  Whether we like it or not estate agents control the process, have the ear of the customer and they really never liked HIPS.

We used to provide HIPS and they we a pain to do, werent liked (or understood) by the vendors and didnt generate that much of a profit.  I for one am glad they are gone. 

As for DEAs not getting sleep?  This is what being in business is like.  There are thousands of people out there in the dole queue and we have a government created and enforced market for EPCs.  We had plans 6-months ago to handle what we would do when HIPS bit the dust and they were put into action within 7 minutes of the 1st press announcement.  Guess what?  we picked up three new customers. 

Sink or Swim?

Submitted by chriscannon1950 on Sun, 23/05/2010 - 18:23.

Like you Chris, I still have and will have a continuous source of work through estate agent friends and solicitors and I'm lucky to be in an area which isn't over-saturated with DEA's.

I have heard of someone recently qualified and with a young family, thinking that he could drop into my area and support his wife and children on an area already sewn up, as such. I feel very sorry for him as he was very badly advised when he joined his accreditation scheme and really there ought to be a support group set up to target  unscrupulous panels and schemes to maybe getting some compensation for people like him.

There is no doubt in my mind that central government is directly culpable for letting this carry on as it did. I'm sure that if the scheme for energy assessments had been set up as it was in France, with a set list of charges; that half the problems with undercutting and arm twisting from panels would not have happened and this is certainly the fault of the last government.

They basically let schemes self-govern themselves and this has led to all sorts of problems that we have all experienced over the last 3 years or so. Even with the new tenants in No.10; I still feel they should stump up for fee costs for Dea's and Hi's who are unable to continue in this profession. My very best wishes to everyone for the future. Chris Cannon .Energyxs.co.k

HIPS are dead but EPCs are alive

Submitted by fepenergy on Sun, 23/05/2010 - 15:39.

 I think we the DEAs all need to club together and get the new government to start taking the EPCs seriously as they say they want to be the greenest government ever they need to get an independent bodies set up to police the selling and renting of buildings after all trading standards don’t seem to bother.

I have a colleague that does Display Energy certificates and his local trading standards office as only just got theirs updated what hope for us if they don’t comply ,

Also I think we need to get the government to enforce recommendations on the home and start bringing properties up to scratch a costly thing for some landlords but how often do you survey a property and point out where they could save money and they will probably not do it till its enforced.

I do think that the EPCs will be the in the forefront now it’s not buried in a hips pack so people will start searching for them so we all could be busy let’s hope

What do you think ?

T Taylor


I think we need to stop

Submitted by chrisiread on Tue, 25/05/2010 - 08:08.

I think we need to stop going on about how its everybody elses job to get us more business (through enforcement and policing) and pay us compensation if we cant make a living out of being DEAs.  If we were to spend as much time on thinking about how we, as an industry, can raise awareness and actually help the consumers see how useful EPCs are we would all be better off.

In the estate agent industry the property misdescriptions act has been around for years and you still see blatant breaches every day in the press and on the web.  What do successful agents do?  They dont keep whining on about how unfair it all is and they wish that someone would step in and stop all the bad practice.  Instead, they focus on building their reputations, investing in their people and getting out there and winning business.

I think we need to take a leaf out of the succesful estate agents book because the government has thrown us all a huge bone by retaining EPCs and emphasising their importance.  Thinking that they will also provide marketing support through trading standards is a simple no-hoper.  Its down to us to get out there and promote EPCs and our businesses.

 

New order

Submitted by My Home Energy on Sun, 23/05/2010 - 05:03.

Chris I agree. It's going to be interesting to see how the public view Energy Performance Certificates and who will be the policeman in this new 28 day process. I can't see the estate agent getting too bothered that an EPC certificates isn't in place and if the buyer isn't that bothered they won't want to rock the boat. Will it be the solicitor selling the property or the buyer's solicitor?