Bit of a scam?

Can you ask for the BER calculation spreadsheet?. If you have basic knowledge of Excel, and some idea of u-values, etc. then you can see what is driving the overall calculation and hence the rating.

My brother bought a new house some time ago and I looked at the spreadsheet. I could see that the insulation in the attic was supposed to be 'x' cm (can't remember, but about double the height of the rafters). But I could see that it did not go higher than the rafters. I concluded then that 'paperwork never refused ink' and the BER process would not even pass a rudimentary QA/QC check.

Cool your jets there!. I said I had the opportunity to look at one BER cert, and it didn't pass muster. So that particular cert could not be considered valid as far as I was concerned. And that's it. Fact. It wasn't my house anyway, so I had no skin in the game. If you do it properly then more power to you. Like all services, then will be a variation in the standard. On that particular occasion I found the standard to be extremely low (albeit in low sample).

I don't have skin in the game. Not my house. I informed the home owner (my brother). It was up to him to follow up. 'Civic duty' is a bit strong eh!. But we digress anyway!. Back on topic (didn't mean to derail the OP here!).

Paper never refuses ink, and like all services, there is a variation in quality and standard, for different reasons. Plus sometimes genuine mistakes are made. People are human. I know of one person of property shall we say, he trialled 3 different BER people until he found one the best for him.

all that work seems like it would get a C1 , B3/2 at most. i wouldn't worry about the other house. maybe they already have insulation or new boiler, etc… for a1, you would need heat pumps, solar, etc, hope that helps!

a terrace house is easier as it has 2 houses between it, an end of terrace, or semi-d , does not.

maybe internal work done you did not see? or wrap around?

maybe chimney was closed up?

better windows,

with 2 similar ber assessors, you might have i would think, a small difference maybe 1 / 2 ratings,

if you have more info, supply it, to get more accuracy on this,

Quotelf

Yes and no. Yes we insulated our house for ourselves but we were doing other work so the cost of the insulation was only itself. All other remedial work and decorating was being done anyway.

Another thing to factor is green mortgages. We had ours valued and the agent assumed we were a D or something. He perked up when I said B1, he said that allows buyers obtain lower % rates and would add about €50k to our sale.

Considering you say "needs a lot of work" my gut says no. Sell it as is and be happy.

You could add solar panels to aim to get a B rating but you would have to ask your agent if being a B2 over a C3 would have additional value.

You can check the advisory report which comes with every BER, this gives basic advice on how to increase the BER in a few key areas.

Then do some calculations to see what needs doing to get to a B. Could be €10,000 at least for solar and new boiler so you'd want to be sure.