Green rating for sold, leased homes

Age
Saturday 23/10/2010 Page: 14

EVERY home in Victoria will soon require an energy efficiency rating certificate when sold or leased as part of a plan to improve the energy efficiency of hundreds of thousands of Melbourne's older homes. The certificates are likely to cost a couple of hundred dollars each and a high-level state government committee is considering how the scheme will be introduced. Under an agreement between the federal government, states and territories, the certificates are due to be mandatory by May next year for every house sold or leased.

Energy efficiency certificates that consider such things as whether a house or unit has carpet, insulation, the number of windows and whether they have curtains and blinds and the orientation of the house already exist in Canberra and cost vendors or landlords about $235 each. Houses are rated out of six stars in Canberra and one industry expert said it was a big and often expensive job to increase the rating of older homes. While new homes in Victoria must have a five-star rating (six-star from next May) hundreds of thousands of existing homes built up to a century ago have a substantially lower rating.

Consumer Affairs Victoria executive director Claire Noone is heading the state government committee considering the mandatory reporting scheme. The committee includes representatives from the premier's department, planning, treasury and the department of sustainability and environment. Despite the state government promising an "extensive public consultation process" on the scheme this year, Dr No one declined to discuss it.

The office of the federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, yesterday also refused to answer a list of questions on the scheme. Environment Victoria chief executive Kelly O'Shanassy welcomed the mandatory disclosure of housing energy efficiency as an important step in improving the energy efficiency of existing homes. But building groups have warned the scheme had to be meaningful and carefully implemented or it could turn into another insulation batts debacle.

Master Builders Association of Victoria executive director Brian Welch questioned who was going to do the work. "Will they be a registered practitioner? How much will it cost?". He said the scheme would need to be policed to ensure the certificates were genuine and meant something. He said there were also questions about how long a certificate would last and whether holiday homes would require one.

The Building Designers Association of Victoria was recently appointed an official body to accredit assessors who rated the energy efficiency of new homes in Victoria. The Association's Brian Morison said any new mandatory efficiency rating scheme for existing homes would need to be robust with properly qualified assessors. The Property Council of Australia's Victorian head, Jennifer Cunich, said while it did not support extra regulation, it would be supportive of a scheme that improved sustainability if it was a "genuine and efficient program".