The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has recently decided to introduce mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency for the sale of properties. This will take effect in May 2011.
It is intended that this will result in home owners placing a greater emphasis on the energy efficiency of their homes and buyers taking the relative performance of homes into account when they are looking at homes to buy.
To comply with the requirements under the proposed system if you intend to sell a property you must disclose to prospective purchasers the current level of energy performance of the property. To do this it is anticipated that you will need to obtain an Energy Efficiency Rating Statement from an accredited energy assessor. This is like a purchaser obtaining from a qualified building inspector a building inspection report on a home before committing to buy except in this case the assessor must be employed by the seller and all prospective purchasers must be given the statement.
Whilst the details of the scheme are yet to be finalised anyone who is thinking about selling their home in the next few years should take these new requirements into account when preparing for the sale.
Further information can be obtained from Janelle Brown.
