BER Assessment - does it really have to be done?

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I've posted this in a separate thread...but I think it worthwhile posting it here also... just so people are aware of how the BER "works"
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A side step to this topic but related......
I frequently read the Woodpellet Blog Spot. There is a link to an article in the Times Online with regard to the BER assessors (in terms of rating & cost). As part of their research, they got 3 diff companies in Dublin to assess one house..... and as expected, three different ratings provided, 3 different costs & 3 different lenghts of time taken to assess each house.

The rant in the blogspot points clearly at the SEI which is essentially a license for any SEI 'installer' or 'approver' to print money.

Worth a read.
 
It costs €2000 for the 1 week course, €1000 to register with SEI and €100 each year thereafter. SEI also gets €35 for each cert issued.

Now that is some scam.
 
bond-007 said:
It costs €2000 for the 1 week course, €1000 to register with SEI and €100 each year thereafter. SEI also gets €35 for each cert issued.

Now that is some scam.
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Can anyone follow these steps are there prerequisites (e.g. engineering diploma or professional membership or even Leaving Cert)?
 
€2000 for a weeks course and €1000 to register :eek:

There are 1,383 BER assessors registered (to date) with the SIE, thats €2,7million in course fees alone, 21 training colleges, that €138,300.00 on average per training house!
Add to that the €1,3million that SIE have gotten (to date) from registered assessors alone (not including the €35 per assessement )and try to tell me that its not a scam??

I've said it before "jobs for the boys"!
 
Bob_tg said:
Can anyone follow these steps are there prerequisites (e.g. engineering diploma or professional membership or even Leaving Cert)?
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It says you need a level 6 craft qualification or relevant life experience.
Being an electrician seems to be enough from my enquiries.
 
are you not all missing the point? this document will be used by purchasers and renters of properties in order to inform them whether the house they're buying/renting will have high or low energy bills. if i was buying a house and found 2 that were very similar price wise i think the BER would definitely have an impact on which i would buy, it would also give me leverage to seek a lower price from a lower BER rated house owner.
as for blaming the greens i'm fairly sure this is an EU mandated scheme that we are already a couple of years behind in implementing.
what i would like to know is, if i purchase a house and the BER is way out of kilter with my energy bills will i have a comeback against either the seller or the BER assessor?
 
Just as i suspected. I got a BER Assessor (€150 per apartment) to rate 2 apartments. I offered him €50 each for a better rating than what he got. He played with a few figures and phoned me back.

I wont say what happened. Lets just say im happy.
 
Bob_tg said:
It's not that the idea is bad...it's the way we go about it that's the problem.
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That sums it up nicely. Somewhere along the line a good idea (to make developers build houses and apartments that were energy efficient) got sidetracked by some clerk to create a costly jungle of mindless red tape that just created opportunity for BER test firms.
Sure, you have to have a system to measure the energy rating of homes, but what was the point of doing it this way? Better by far to start with new houses, then work backwards as you develop a workable system.
To get back to the original query, the current BER regime is a farce, with unacceptable variances in test results and no outcome if a home is below par. I still believe, given the realities, that anyone renting out a house is better of with the cheapest possible BER cert, regardless of what it means.
 
minion said:
Just as i suspected. I got a BER Assessor (€150 per apartment) to rate 2 apartments. I offered him €50 each for a better rating than what he got. He played with a few figures and phoned me back.

I wont say what happened. Lets just say im happy.
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I'm not a bit surprised and should I be selling I'll be going with the Assessor who'll give me the best rating. This whole scheme is madness.
 
Noelf did not pay them, We offered them the chance to tender for a few hundred units, part of the Tender process was to test one property, and it happened to one of mine. the two that got the closest rating got it. problem is they could have been the worst of a bad lot or the better of a bad lot,,, time will tell
So I got 5 free BER's and two guys got the gig.
Hey guys its not rocket science......
 
dereko1969 said:
are you not all missing the point? this document will be used by purchasers and renters of properties in order to inform them whether the house they're buying/renting will have high or low energy bills. if i was buying a house and found 2 that were very similar price wise i think the BER would definitely have an impact on which i would buy, it would also give me leverage to seek a lower price from a lower BER rated house owner.
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Yes but how can we trust the ratings given?

3 different asessors giving 3 different results speaks volumes to me.

If I wanted to know what it would cost to heat a house I'd ask for the ESB bills, it might not tell you the whole story but it would give an indicator.
 
minion said:
Just as i suspected. I got a BER Assessor (€150 per apartment) to rate 2 apartments. I offered him €50 each for a better rating than what he got. He played with a few figures and phoned me back.

I wont say what happened. Lets just say im happy.
Click to expand...

I hope you reported him/her. Its is people like them who ruin it for everyone else. It is an automatic strike off offence.
 
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