How energy efficient is the house you are buying or renting?

Do you ever wonder, when you buy or rent a house, what its energy rating might be? Unless you live in the ACT, you’d have almost no way of knowing. For such an important decision, and with energy prices impacting on many and badly insulated houses leading to poor comfort, it seems fair that vendors and landlords should have to disclose this information. 

Renew recently made a submission to the Federal government’s consultation on Home Energy Ratings Disclosure Framework (Version 2) and called on the Government to consider nationally co-ordinating the scheme, as is done with commercial building disclosure laws, and to include the operating efficiency of houses, not just the thermal performance. 

Mandatory disclosure is particularly important for those who are renting. Renters are generally unable to access as much information about the building construction, and are also less able to make changes to a house once they have signed on the dotted line. Yet even in the ACT, where mandatory disclosure laws have been implemented for more than two decades, compliance with requirements to advertising energy ratings as houses are listed for rent has been poor.

While it could be argued that in a competitive rental market renters don’t have the luxury of making decisions about houses based on energy efficiency data, we suggest that it is precisely at these times that renters need this information easily and quickly available. If the pressure is on to accept a rental agreement, or go without, it’s useful for renters  to know if they are going to be hit with high running costs and potentially living in an uncomfortable home so they are able to make an informed decision about taking on the lease or the terms of the agreement. 

Mandatory disclosure laws for renters will also serve as a complementary measure where minimum rentals standards are being introduced, providing valuable information to the tenant and empowering them to have informed conversations with their landlord about energy upgrades that might be required.