An essential element in the sale or rental of real estate, the energy performance diagnosis (EPD) has seen its reliability questioned in recent times. What put some owners at risk of ending up with housing considered indecent. Explanations.
It is a veritable sword of Damocles over the heads of the owners. Classifying housing from A to G, the energy performance diagnosis (DPE) makes rain and shine on the real estate market.
Compulsory since 2007, but considered at the time as a simple formality with no real impact, it indeed conditions today any transaction and rental of a property.
A kind of lottery
“The potential buyer or tenant has objective information about the quality of the accommodation offered to him, which avoids unpleasant surprises”, explains Yannick Ainouche, president of the Fnaim chamber of real estate diagnosticians.
Yet its reliability has often been questioned, even giving some owners the impression of participating in a kind of lottery.
Recently, it was the association 60 million consumers who pinned this famous DPE. By carrying out around twenty diagnoses, some of which for the same good, the association has obtained more than surprising results.
A new calculation method
“For the same house, the five diagnosticians do not lead to the same result,” explains the association 60 Millions de consommateurs. There are always at least two different letters, and sometimes three for the energy labels which go from A to G”.
How is such a difference possible? For Yannick Ainouche, two factors can explain this gap. “The new DPE calculation method has been much more advanced since its overhaul in July 2021. The diagnosis now includes a greater part of the technical specificities of housing. For the DPE to be reliable and objective, the owner must provide us with several essential information: type of insulation, its thickness, etc.
However, according to the expert, some of them are absent when the diagnosis is made or simply unable to answer certain questions that are a little too technical. “As part of the new DPE, we must, for example, enter the size of the insulation. If we do not have this information, we put a default index, which degrades the rating of the property,” explains the expert.
Low cost diagnostics
Another hypothesis put forward by our interlocutor: the use of low-cost, unskilled diagnosticians, who sell off prices and tarnish the image of the sector. “Even if it is not the majority of cases, some diagnosticians do their job poorly and provide DPEs which are not reliable”, recognizes the Fnaim expert. A problem well known to the public authorities.
Published in September, a report by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) points to certain dubious practices on the part of real estate diagnosticians. In question ? Unclear prices and display that is too often non-existent.
The chamber of real estate diagnosticians of the Fnaim thus calls for the construction of a real professional branch, and, why not, to think about an authority which could sanction unscrupulous diagnosticians. As a reminder, since July 1, 2021, the DPE is legally enforceable.
The condominium conundrum
But a new controversy is emerging. If individual houses can see their ranking improve more easily thanks to renovation works, this is not the case for apartments.
Depending on the state of the building in which they are located and the mode of heating, most often collective, the apartments struggle to change class even if they are renovated from top to bottom.
Faced with this imbroglio, almost a quarter of landlords would be reluctant to embark on the work and would seek to get rid of these properties that have become “unlettable” and unsaleable.
Especially since a new measure still risks making people cringe: from 1is April, an energy audit will be mandatory when selling F and G classed condominiums. At the expense of the owner, it should cost between 600 euros and 1,000 euros.