Code for Sustainable Homes
Part of the HIP obligation from May 1st 2008 is a mandatory rating against the Code for Sustainable Homes – this replaced EcoHomes in England from April 2007. The code applies to new build homes only and is the national standard for the design and construction of sustainable new homes; it measures the sustainability of a home against key design categories, rating the ‘whole home’ as a complete package.
The new requirement to have a rating against the code does not make it mandatory to build a home to the code or to have each new home assessed against the Code. It does however mean that all buyers of new homes be given clear information about the sustainability of the new home. A house builder can do this in one of two ways:
- build a code home, have that home assessed against the code and provide the home buyer with a code certificate stating the star rating the home has achieved;
- build to current building regulations standards, not to pay for an assessment and instead issue a free nil-rated certificate of non-assessment (also referred to as a nil-rating) to the home buyer.
Depending on when marketing of the property starts, the HIP might contain a nil-rated certificate, the design stage Code certificate or the post construction Code certificate. If the home is still being marketed once construction is complete then the design stage certificate will have to be replaced with the final certificate.