Experience at the Notary is showing that they are accepting documents without an Energy Certificate. HOWEVER, they are warning buyers that they will not be Registered as the property owner until the Energy Certificate is provided. As I wrote on the 31st:
‘(Without being in a Registry, it is only a private contract between the registered owner and the 1st buyer and, though committing fraud, the registered owner could sell the property again to a 2nd buyer and if that 2nd buyer registers the property before the first one, the 2nd buyer is the legal owner and the 1st buyer only has the right to sue the initial seller, who has gained two sale prices and may well have disappeared! There are variations to that of course depending upon occupation, etc, but very simply that’s the situation).’
‘I think that the practical results of that should be that the new owner will request the seller to obtain the CEE before they take occupation or discount the price for the cost of obtaining the certificate.’
The prices for the survey and obtaining the certificate are varying widely. I just caution with regard to the cheapies as follows.
The cost of the Certificate varies depending on type, size and location of the property. As each property is different a quotation should be provided upon request. In the case of multiple, identical apartments in a block a fee can be negotiated on request and will be cheaper than the standard rate. Depending upon the location there may be a travel charge, which should be quoted at the time of enquiry. After the survey, the Certificate has to be approved by the professions’ Colegio. Thereafter, the approved Certificate has to be registered with the Junta de Andalucía. Any tax levied by the Junta de Andalucía will be charged at cost, but at this moment the amount has not been confirmed.
One thing to check is if they will visit the property and if the work and cost to present the information to the Colegio and Junta is included in their fee.
To do it properly takes hours going to, surveying and coming back from the property. Then filling in the computer program should take an hour or more. Send it off to Colegio and then receive it back, OK’d hopefully (fee possible). Then to complete the 8 pages of forms and get 2 documents signed by the property owner and send it off to the Junta. (Fee possible). If any are bounced back as incomplete, the process will have to be gone through again.
Make sure that they are going to do all that and not just sit in an office, take a verbal description of the house and its Catastral number and submit that to the computer, and give you back the result unconfirmed by Colegio or Junta! We were informed that some companies that offer their service from 80€! do not visit the property and only enter the minimum information online to get the Certificate. A visit to the property will identify several factors that may improve the rating i.e. type of windows, age of boiler, orientation, roof insulation, etc., which they can’t know without a visit. I see lots of unsatisfied clients of cheap survey’s ahead!
It appears that the more detailed the information the more the likelihood of having a better grade. The better the grade the higher the value of the property. Also, there has been mention of the probability in the future that the IBI of a property will be varied according to its grade. I can see these being game changers in the future.
We aren’t doing them as it must be a Colegio member so we are working with trusted people and I’ve seen them do everything up to the submission stage to the Junta. We are waiting for the result!
