They are ‘strewn with schoolboy errors’ and ‘glaring omissions’, according to Communities and Local Government, in a warning to the accreditation schemes that are meant to police the regime.

CLG has accused the schemes of failing to catch unacceptable or invalid EPCs, and of allowing Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) to lodge reports when their membership has run out, or if they have been expelled from other accreditation schemes for disciplinary reasons.

In a letter from CLG, written to the accreditation schemes and leaked to the website Home Inspectors Forum, CLG also announces tougher disciplinary procedures that will now face the schemes if they fail to uphold standards.

There will now be spot checks and mystery shopping.

According to one of the accreditation schemes, NHER, more than half its DEAs have lodged less than 75 EPCs.

Separately, a leading EPC provider has warned that false economies are being made on ‘cheap as chips’ Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) services and that it is unclear where the agent’s liability stands, if the agent has commissioned the EPC.

Greg Elliott, group operations director of Green Energy Matters (GEM), said cases are beginning to come through where the DEA has got it wrong.

He said: “You can typically expect an out-of-court settlement of, say, £4,000 where an EPC stated that there was no double glazing when there was, or for £3,000 when the assessor got the type of boiler wrong.”

Elliott said that faults in the EPC might not come to light in time for householders to claim on the DEA’s professional indemnity insurance. He warned that the insurance might have run out, and the DEA “might have gone back to teaching”.

VTUK has offered its clients EPC’s through Gemini since they became mandatory in October 2008.  VTUK selected GEM as a chosen partner to provide fully compliant EPC’s at a highly competitive price of £46.95 + VAT.

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