Disputing a BER assessment

By "contractor", I mean a company who come in and project manage the entire project from start to finish, in a set timeframe, and charge an arm and a leg for it.

I project managed the works myself, with family help and other 'fully qualified' laborers, as and when necessary. Works were done to a very high standard over 3years. What are you insinuating?

I'm from a family of tradesmen. Father was a builder and plasterer for 10years, then a plumber for 40years. Both of my brothers are plumbers / builders who have build their own houses. My sister's husband is a carpenter and roofer.

I did NOT hire a contractor or a company to do the entire A to Z of works - I have been very clear that I did NOT do this. Most people do not live in Derek Bannons renovation world where 3-400k of money can be plucked from nowhere.

I project managed the works myself over a 3 year period. Most of the work I personally did was demolishing dry walls, filling skips, organizing labor, ordering and collecting materials, landscaping gardens, and helping my "fully qualified and skilled" family members who are, quite literally, full-time tradesmen and builders. They are fully qualified and registered tradesmen and are 100% allowed to sign off on works they did to assist a BER assessment.

I'm not sure what you don't understand about this?

I do not appreciate the accusations being made against me. The full works carried out were by skilled laborers to a very high standard.

The main issue here is the assessor came and assured me if a Builders Report would assist the assessment, then he would let me know before issuing the Cert. He didn't do this and issued the Cert anyway. Despite substantial insulation installed in every external wall, ceiling and roof, he applied default values to these, which are based on the age of the house. The report basically assumes there is no insulation in most of the walls or ceiling.

Thanks a million for this response. I had the BER Advisory Report and Engineer Assessment from when I bought the house. I didn't have a specific one done prior to renovation works.

Here's what the assessor received:

• Receipts for all materials. The receipts with the biggest spend were delivered to the house, so had the address on the receipt. The assessor took pictures of all of these.
• Extensive pictures showing the full progression of works from start to finish. I organized these in a room by room layout, printed on A4 and gave the assessor a copy.
• I opened plug sockets in every room and removed spot lights, so the assessor could see the insulation directly, and confirm what was in the pictures.
• The assessor explained to me that a Builders Report was preferred, but he did not insist on this. I made it clear to him I could get one, and he assured me he would let me know if one was needed.

Based on the comments he made during the visit, it sounded like he had enough evidence to make a fair assessment. He also assured me if the Report was helpful, he would request it prior to issuing the Cert. However, according to the Data File I received from SEAI, extensive areas were left with "default values" or in other words "without any insulation" and a C3 was issued. Specifically the walls and roofs were labeled as 'poor'.

I rang him after seeing the C3 and was obviously very upset, but he basically didn't care. My estate agent advised to use another assessor, however it took 5 weeks for him to finally call. He advised to wait and see if a sale was falling through before he'd do a reassessment, which was extremely unhelpful after waiting 5 weeks for him to call.

After this, I emailed the original assessor and provided him with the Builders Report and asked him very nicely to update the assessment, but unfortunately I still haven't heard from him.

Thanks for your response. Yes, this is why I'm so frustrated. No other assessor wants to touch this. My biggest frustration is that the original assessor assured me he'd request the Report if the self certification wasn't sufficient.

Based on the advice of my estate agent, I tried another assessor but he took 5 weeks to call out, only to tell me he won't do it. Other than the first follow up call I had with the original assessor, where I was obviously upset, I did not speak with him since. On Friday I went back to the original assessor and asked him very nicely to update it. Unfortunately he hasn't responded.