Accreditors Will Clamp Down
On the last podcast with Linda Gray, I spoke of an operator (or operators) who are seemingly employing data-gatherers to collect the necessary property information needed to award an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).
Wholesale EPCs
The data is apparently being collected, en-masse, from several properties over the course of, say, a day, before being sent on to a number of accredited Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs), to be formally processed as EPCs.
On the podcast, I wasn't quite sure I had interpreted the business-model involved correctly, but it seems I had.
Pile 'em High, Sell 'em Cheap!
Because of the wholesale numbers of EPCs involved, and the speed at which the operation is scaled to process the collected data into EPCs, it is thought the price being paid for the actual data-collection - the physical work of measuring and photography etc... - is below £10 per property.
I spoke with Philip Salaman of Quidos about it yesterday, and it is safe to say, he was extremely unimpressed, to say the least! He said that Quidos - as an official accreditation scheme - would seek to immediately take appropriate action against any organisation operating under its scheme, in this way.
He also said that all the accreditation bodies are duty-bound to do the same and wouldn't hesitate to work together in driving-out such practices.
So if you're doing this, and have pushed a lot through recently... watch out.
