July 6th, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving, Mortgages, News, Property Market 3 Comments »
Repaying your mortgage early can save you substantial amounts in interest payments and could be a great financial investment at present. With interest rates at their lowest in decades now maybe the time to increase your mortgage repayments or consider paying off a lump sum.
Before you arrange to make overpayments it is important to check a few details, do your homework and understand the pros and cons whichever type of mortgage you have and/or are considering.
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July 2nd, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving, News 1 Comment »
Shocking research has shown gas and electric prices could rise to such an extent your energy bills could rise to as high as £5,000 per year.
The research recently published has been carried out by uSwitch.com and forecasters concluded that on current trends that energy bills could reach £4,185 by 2020, in comparison to £1,243 at the moment.
In addition to the above, the Government plan to implement smart meters in homes, which it is anticipated will cost taxpayers an extra £548 a year. Therefore, equating that the cost for gas and electric for each household could be as high as £4,733 within a decade.
June 29th, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Assessors, EPC 9 Comments »
After almost a year since our article ‘Should I train as a domestic energy assessor (DEA)? and the incredible number of responses and strength of feeling expressed from visitors, we felt it would be a good time to review the current situation.
Training as a domestic energy assessor and/or home inspector is still being ‘sold’ in quite a widespread manner by what appears to be an increasing number of training providers. Is this because there is a need or a shortage within the industry? Or that training is now a growing profitable industry benefitting in these times of recession.
June 8th, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving, Financial Products, Home Information Packs, Property Conveyancing, Property Market 13 Comments »
Recently it was reported that industry professionals are recognising the benefits of Home Information Packs (HIP). This is against the general negative slant the main stream media seem to want to promote.
HIP-Consultant.co.uk have been providing Home Information Packs for over 18 months and have witnessed numerous situations where Home Information Packs have benefitted the home buyer, home seller and the process itself. Without Home Information Packs; sales would have quite likely fallen through and at best would have held up proceedings to an extent the majority of people would be very unhappy with.
June 3rd, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving, EPC, News, Property Market 1 Comment »
BoKloK is a new concept of housing, first pioneered in Scandinavia by furniture giant IKEA and construction firm Skanska. In the UK, property company Live Smart @ Home has the exclusive licence to build BoKlok properties and its first development is at St James Village in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.
This is the first development in the UK of the BoKlok concept which is also currently active in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The arrival and development of these exciting properties in Gateshead further enhances the constant improvement and regeneration of the area. The state-of-the-art, Scandinavian-style timber framed properties are aimed at households earning between £15,000 and £35,000 a year and are being sold on a rented, outright sale or shared ownership basis.
April 3rd, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in EPC, Property Conveyancing 5 Comments »
The commercial EPC legislation came into force on April 2008 and now the large majority of commercial properties require a Commercial Energy Performance Certificate before marketing of the property can legally commence.
Whereas the domestic equivalent do vary slightly they are generally under a £100; whereas the commercial EPC is generally £350 and upwards and very much dependant on the individual property. The similarity between commercial and domestic energy performance certificates names can give people an impression they will be similarly priced. The difference in cost is due to the much increased time and expertise required to produce the commercial EPC both on-site and off-site.
March 23rd, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving, EPC, News 2 Comments »
The Fuel Poverty bill has been thrown out of parliament as not enough MPs turned up to vote on the bill. With rising energy prices and the challenging financial situation at present surely this was a good move to help those less vulnerable than themselves, who can not claim £60k for a second home.
The Fuel poverty Bill was put forward by David Heath, the Liberal Democrat MP. It is estimated that there are currently 5.5 million households living in fuel poverty; this figure is calculated by the number of people where one tenth or more of their income goes on gas and electricity bills.
February 26th, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving, Mortgages, Property Market 1 Comment »
With the property news full of tales of woe in the banking world and the related slump in the housing market, it is easy to overlook some of the better news that the falling price trend has influenced. In an intriguing twist it has emerged from recent research that trading up to a bigger property is now financially less problematic than only a year ago, depending on the size of house one needs to buy.
February 21st, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving, EPC 5 Comments »
The continuing credit crunch is affecting homeowners in great numbers, and with no sign of improvement imminent it could be worth looking at just how efficient your home is.
We all think we have done enough to improve our homes, but how many of us have? And when it comes to the crunch, just how much can be saved and how?
February 12th, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving 1 Comment »
An interesting initiative by the Scottish government sees an annual prize of £1million offered to the winner of the best scheme for improving energy efficiency. The Scottish Energy Efficiency Design Awards, as they will be known, invite applications from April this year, and the scheme was announced by Scottish Minister for the Environment Michael Russell.
It is said that Scotland is home to a large proportion of ‘hard to treat properties, with the government citing some 650,000 homes, or 28 percent of total housing stock, as being within this category, hence the initiative is seen as driving inspiration for further investigation and research into energy efficiency in the home.
February 2nd, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Assessors, EPC 2 Comments »
Continuing Professional Development continues to be a ‘hot topic’ within the domestic energy assessor industry; with accreditation schemes auditing their members and DEAs looking to provide evidence of the required CPD hours.
We were very happy to announce we had been asked to help design a website for Continuing Professional Development for those in the industry in a previous article ‘What is Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Domestic Energy Assessors?’; and even more pleased to be able to say it is now live !!