Pretty soon, the Government will make the Home Information Pack part of legislation when buying a house (although there are some exceptions). This will be down to the seller of the property to sort out.
Some lovely solictors are already working on the principles of the Home Information Pack in areas such as electrical work, requesting Electrical Installation Certificate for any new stuff (e.g. kitchen/bathroom/new mains circuits from the consumer unit). Easy for them to check when new extensions have been added.
Gas has conditions associated with it, and Oil does too.
The Home Information Pack 2006, in its draft mode (for England and Wales), is currently stipulating that SERVICING of gas MUST be carried out by a Corgi registered installer. New installations would currently require that a Corgi registered installer checks and tests the installation, or your local authority - as long as they are aware of it all from the beginning. Hot potato here then.
OFTEC require that from 1st April 2005, all installation work should be identified by an OFTEC certificate or Building Control completion certificate.
There will also be a lovely section on energy efficiently. Not just for the boiler by the looks of it, but for the complete property.
This will all be part of the buy and sell process that happens today. Designed to make everyone feel happier.
More likely to cause a housing crash as home buyers / sellers realise that buying and selling is a whole new ballgame. This report will act as a massive bargaining chip!
This whole area is going to become alot more complicated indeed - across many trade related industries. Good side is that it brings 'trade' back in to fashion, whereupon people learn to become qualified and also have a nice certificate at the end of it. Clearly, those who know anyhow will just be able to go through some form of certification process.
This stuff is clearly thought up by 'those who know best'. I only read it with interest. Anyone who can't sleep at night should read here :-
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1161272
The draft is here :-
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/pub/487/Draf...DraftProceduralGuidancePDF399Kb_id1161487.pdf