Lifespan

It has definately been a good weekend. My youngest turned two on Sunday so we spent the weekend doing lots of family things that the kids would like. The only bad point was that agility training was cancelled on Sunday due to waterlogged field - I tend to rely on those 2 hours to give me a break.

Am off to work shortly which is always a good way to start the week. One of the jobs is for a direct client that I have carried out an EPC for before - over 2 years ago, so it is very nice to be remembered!

Had a few interesting emails this weekend. I am hoping to be part of an independant DEA co-operative soon, it should be operating Nationwide which will allow us all to quote (professionally) for larger estate agents as we will be able to offer nationwide coverage with high standards of service. I do feel it is very important for estate agents to be confident that the DEA they are sending out is polite, well presented and does the EPC in a quick turnaround to fit in with the client.

The other interesting email I have had is with regards to a petition -
"Good Afternoon,

After recent discussion on our forum on the Subject of: Ten Year Life Span of EPCs I am writing to make you aware of a petition we have been involved in finalising which is now live.

See here - Petition to reduce the life span of EPCs

We have recently been working hard in association with the Institute of Domestic Energy Assessors (IDEA) on the petition and campaign. IDEA will be coordinating responses and be promoting the campaign to the wider industry.

I would urge those who support the goal of reducing the lifespan of EPCs to become involved. 

So how can I help?

• You can simply download the petition form from the petition's dedicated area. Please gather signatures of as many people who support the petition and return to the address at the bottom of the petition form.
• Forward this email to your friends, family and colleagues.
• Help us promote and raise awareness online. For eg Be sure to "like" and "share" the page on facebook and tweet the subject on Twitter.
• Come to the forum and show your support

With recent indications of a desire to address the EPC lifespan , now is the time to make your voice heard on the subject.

We will endeavour to provide regular updates on the campaigns progression and look forward to your support.

Thank you for your time.

Kindest regards

The Housing Energy Advisor Team"

This is a good idea, alot of the general public (and some DEAs) are still unsure as to how long the EPC is valid for. It would also encourage the home owner to improve the efficency of the property (think energy efficency is the new granite worktop - New York). Any organisation or individual who is involved in trying to improve the EPC and, by a knock on affect, the industry of energy assessors should be thanked and supported so I for one will be supporting IDEA and The Housing Energy Advisor Team in this campaign.

Information highway/Social networking

I was finally (having a spare 5 minutes) investigating twitter and how it works properly - and I found where people had "retweeted" me or tweeted me a message. So firstly apologies to those who have done that - I wasn't ignoring anyone, I was just ignorant of how twitter worked.

While I was checking out twitter I found an interesting blog - worthwhile to follow: http://www.dailygreennews.co.uk

So while I was reading the above blog I found the link to Estate Agent today where there is a lovely story about how there is another wonderful course coming out for Energy Assessors to take, although there is no promise of any work and the Government have not fully committed to anything as yet - am sure everyone can see where that story is going! http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Here-we-go-again%3A-DEAs-asked-to-part-with-more-money

"The Building Research Establishment would like a cool £900 off them for a place on a three-day training course that might (though it’s not guaranteed) give them some kind of qualification to become one of those new Green Deal jobbies, a Home Energy Adviser. Steer well clear, is our advice. As the BRE itself admits, the Government hasn’t even launched an official scheme yet, so “BRE cannot provide an official qualification”.Mystifyingly, it adds: “However, we are very confident that this course provides all the information you will need to carry out detailed and practical home energy surveys and offer comprehensive advice.”"
So we are still in a fairly quiet market, still seeing new DEAs emerge from new training courses (advertised as the opportunity to earn £40k plus!???) and then there is this news - suppose we are going to see more training providers taking this opportunity!

DEAs really need to be fighting their own corner on this, I have repeatedly said it over the past 3 plus years but we all need to stand together and get something sorted with regards to our own industry before it gets any worse.

A horrible day - Lorry versus Mother.

This post is completely unrelated to work, but I feel the urge to vent so this seems to be a good place!

I try and do my bit and whenever possible I walk to collect my daughter from school or son from playschool. It saves me petrol (bloody expensive now!) and keeps me fitter (eating chocolate while you walk doesn't count does it?).

Unfortunately my daughters school is on a very narrow road. The parking there is tricky to say the least which means some parents park on the zigzag lines, double yellow lines, half up on the pavement and double park. You can imagine how much fun negotiating all that is with a double pushchair.

Last wednesday I had walked up the school and my 3 year old was walking so I just had the two year old in the pushchair. As we came out of the school there was a HGV sitting at the side of the road, on the "wrong" side, engine turned off sitting on the zigzag lines. The driver was refusing to move and was trying to make the drivers of cars coming the other way back up so he could get where he wanted to go.

I basically ignored it all and was smugly thinking ha ha this is why I walk up! I walked on the pavement with the children alongside the lorry.

Unfortunately this is when my smugness got shattered. The lorry moved and as it swung back out to the right side of the road its tailgate bars swung out and caught my pushchair. This started to drag my pushchair (containing the 2 year old) backwards and towards the road.
I don't remember much - according to some of the other mothers I dragged the pushchair off the bars, shoved the 8yr and 3 yr old into the hedge alongside the pavement to get them out of harms way before shouting in not so polite terms at the driver.

The driver of the lorry seemed to think that since the children were unharmed and it was only me that had been clipped by the tailbars on my arm (as well as wrenching my muscles by dragging the pushchair away from the HGV) that all should be forgiven and ignored.

I am not so forgiving when it comes to situations like this - IF my 3 year old had been in the pushchair like he is normally those heavy metal tailbars would have hit him in his face doing god knows what kind of damage, if I hadn't have dragged the pushchair off the tail bars my 2 year old would have been dragged down the road in the pushchair. And due to this the police were called.

Have got to admit that the youngest two are having nightmares as am I at the moment.

Hopefully the parking situation will resolve its self soon but it has put me off walking up to school for the time being.

Got to hope.

Reading through the news this morning all I could find was doom and gloom in regards to the housing market - housing market remaining slow, pessimism affecting housing market and highly uncertain, being the main headlines online today.

But click on to them and read through and there is a glimmer of hope! So I have "swiped" the positive comments out for everyone to see below:

"“However, there is a very clear regional pattern emerging, with London seeing a greater level of price resilience, while in much of the North and Midlands the market remains under greater pressure.” http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Housing-market-gets-off-to-a-bad-start-says-RICS

"Atlantic Canadians may feel they can afford to scrimp and save to pay off debt built up during a holiday buying spree, as the bank suggests, but those same people may feel that purchasing a new home is just too far out of their reach for now. But there is a touch of irony that a simple decision by individuals to hold off on making major purchases, such as a new home, ultimately affects the broader economy"
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1226718.html
It seems that the Canadians are experiencing what we in the UK are. There is little confidence in the market and therefore people aren't buying - but if there was the confidence then we would see higher prices, more properties on the market and more work and better for the economy. Unfortunately (yes, I am on that "soapbox" again) until the Government puts pressure on the banks to make it easier to get a mortgage again we aren't going to see the influx of first time buyers on the market that we need.