Houses being sold or rented will need an energy audit from 2006

EVERY house and commercial property must have an energy audit completed before it is bought or sold from 2006, it emerged yesterday.

A new EU directive will make it mandatory for anyone selling or renting a building to carry out this energy audit from January 4, 2006.

Owners will also have to display an energy label which will tell the potential buyer or tenant how the building scored on an A-F rating, according to Construct Ireland editor Jeff Colley.

“This energy label should be of fundamental concern to people when they are looking at a property because it will have a knock-on effect on its value,” Mr Colley said.

The energy audit is the joint responsibility of the Departments of Environment, Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and Sustainable Energy Ireland.

They will most likely employ existing professionals in the business like engineers or architects to carry out the audit.

Older buildings will not necessarily perform worse than newer buildings in the energy audit, Mr Colley said.

“There has been such a surge in building new houses in recent years that the standards in some cases have not been as high as they should be,” the Construct Ireland editor said.

“But the new EU directive should make the construction industry build houses that will perform well when the mandatory energy audit is carried out,” Mr Colley added.

It is expected there will be no delay in providing the energy labels for new houses once the mandatory audit comes into force in January 2006.

However, it may take longer to provide labels for older buildings, and the State can apply for a three year extension in providing these if they want, Mr Colley said.