BER rating incorrect

Bonzo Delaney

Asking for a friend
He's sold his early 90s direct labour built 240m2 4 bed dormer bungalow he bought it 10 yr ago. Estate agent put/got a Ber of B3 on the house . Ive done various work on the house over the years mainly fixing bad workmanship. So know the house pretty well inside out from crawling through attic spaces to locate leaks and the like. And as for the insulation spec alone there's no way it's anywhere near B3 standard .
Question is would the new owner leagely have any come back over an incorrect Ber assigned to the property.

antix80

Sure, he could sue the person who sold him the house. If someone buys a b3 rated property they should expect to receive one.

sydthebeat

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

Asking for a friend
He's sold his early 90s direct labour built 240m2 4 bed dormer bungalow he bought it 10 yr ago. Estate agent put/got a Ber of B3 on the house . Ive done various work on the house over the years mainly fixing bad workmanship. So know the house pretty well inside out from crawling through attic spaces to locate leaks and the like. And as for the insulation spec alone there's no way it's anywhere near B3 standard .
Question is would the new owner leagely have any come back over an incorrect Ber assigned to the property.

no way an early 90s built house is getting to a B3 level without serious upgrade works being carried out. This should set an alert on the SEAI system and the assessor should be audited to prove the assessment.

the new owner could sue, but wouldn't be suing the previous owner or the estate agent.... they would sue the BER assessor.

Bonzo Delaney

sydthebeat wrote: »

no way an early 90s built house is getting to a B3 level without serious upgrade works being carried out. This should set an alert on the SEAI system and the assessor should be audited to prove the assessment.

the new owner could sue, but wouldn't be suing the previous owner or the estate agent.... they would sue the BER assessor.

That was my opinion but is there also not some responsibility on the purchaser to verify independently everything is in order.

antix80

sydthebeat wrote: »

the new owner could sue, but wouldn't be suing the previous owner or the estate agent.... they would sue the BER assessor.

Are you sure this is right? New owner has no contract with ber assessor. Maybe seai have a compensation scheme but that would be between new owner and seai.

antix80

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

That was my opinion but is there also not some responsibility on the purchaser to verify independently everything is in order.

Yes and no. If something looks too good to be true it probably is. It doesn't absolve seller of their responsibly.

sydthebeat

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

That was my opinion but is there also not some responsibility on the purchaser to verify independently everything is in order.

No.

The BER certificate is provided as part of the conveyancing documents as a legal document, and the purchaser (and more importantly the purchasers solicitor) should be able to take these documents as being sound.

If the purchaser / purchasers surveyors has any doubts as to the validity of the rating, their only real option is not to purchase the property.

sydthebeat

antix80 wrote: »

Are you sure this is right? New owner has no contract with ber assessor. Maybe seai have a compensation scheme but that would be between new owner and seai.

Its correct.

BER assessor have to carry min Professional Indemnity insurance of €1.3 million

The cert is a legal document which forms part of the purchase.
if the cert is found to be incorrect, then the provider of the cert is negligent and can be subject to legal action... in the same way the provider of other certs can be sued

Bonzo Delaney

That makes sound sense in fairness
When I asked what was exactly done to
establish the rating he said this lad called with the estate agent had a walk around the house poked his head up in to the attic didn't go near the crawl space behind the dormer knee walls and no mention of a blower test whatsoever.
Next thing he knew the house went on the market 2 months ago with a B3 and sale closed early this week.
Madness.

sydthebeat

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

That makes sound sense in fairness
When I asked what was exactly done to
establish the rating he said this lad called with the estate agent had a walk around the house poked his head up in to the attic didn't go near the crawl space behind the dormer knee walls and no mention of a blower test whatsoever.
Next thing he knew the house went on the market 2 months ago with a B3 and sale closed early this week.
Madness.

well theres no blower door test required for a BER assessment, and the survey does entail a "walk around" and an attic inspection....

however the assessor has to be happy that the attic insulation they input is on average across the whole roof.... and as i said originally, a standard house from the mid 90s would not get anywhere near a B3 rating typically.

Dudda

A large amount of solar panels added to a house can bring up a BER rating a lot more than you'd think so while the house might be a high 'D' or low 'C' the panels could bring it up to B3.

Obviously I don't know if this house has any PV added but thought it's worth mentioning.