A Domestic EPC Assessor can earn anywhere from £18,000 to £50,000 per year working approximately 35-40 hours per week. Why such a wide range of salary you may ask? This depends on many factors.
According to Total Jobs a Domestic EPC assessor’s average salary is £29,000. This is of course if you were working for an EPC firm on a salary. Many assessors choose to go on out on their own and perform EPC surveys as their own business. This can raise the income ceiling, however as a business owner an assessor will need to generate find customers by themselves. Below we will discuss the costs, celings and challenges a Domestic EPC assessor may face running a business.
What exactly is an EPC Assessor?
EPC Assessors visit properties and survey them to check on the overall energy efficiency of the building. A domestic EPC assessor will perform calculations on residiential properties, looking at heating systems, windows, doors, air conditioning, lighting , insulation and other factors. Using this information the property is provided with a legal 4 page document which will include the EPC score and overall EPC rating between A-G. An A rated property being the highest level of energy efficiency and G the lowest. This Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is then submitted to the assessors accreditation body, who then uploads it to the goverment run EPC register.
How to become a certified EPC assessor
All EPC assessors are certified via accrediation companies, these are Stroma, Elmhurst, EMCK and Quidos. These firms provide training in order people interested in becoming assessors.
The typical course lasts for 5 days long and is quite demanding because a lot of information has to be squeezed within that time. The cost of the training is dependent on the trainer and typically falls within the £1,000-£1,500 range. After the course is completed the student must submit a portfolio of things related to the job , as and an evaluation of five property types.
After you have been certified, you will receive a certification confirming that you have achieved this. After that, you will need be a member of one or more accreditation organizations. The accreditation bodies include Stroma. Elmhurst, ECMK and Quidos. They will examine your application. There is usually no fee to join as that you submit an amount of EPCs annually. After approval, you will have access to the approved program that creates and lodges your EPC. For each EPC that you file, the client will have to pay a lodging fee, which is around £6 or £10, depending on the amount of work you submit.
On Going Costs
The primary cost to an assessor is transport. An assessor will need a reliable vehicle and naturally fuel and servicing as those miles will crank up. As mentioned above, there’s also the cost to submit each survey report to their accreditation body. A full time and well organised assessor coiuld perform anywhere between 8-12 assessments a day depending on the sizes of the properties and travel time. To find work, you’re required to promote your self constantly. In the beginning, it might be worth signing up to an organization. Panels are basically marketing firm that sells the epc, and then contracts out the work to local people to conduct the evaluation. Since they’re taking an amount of the task you’ll be left with an enlargement of the cut. You must be certain who pays the cost of the lodgement.
As EPCs last for 10 years, repeat business is almost a non-starter unless the assessor has contacts with real estage agencies, landlords with sizeable property portfolios etc, therefore marketing an using online plantforms such as Go Local EPC in order to generate leads.
To sum up
If you’re organized and independent it could be an excellent career choice and once you’ve established yourself, you can add a new aspect to your skills through training to become certified on any of these other areas like a Non Domestic Assessor or an Assessor for Domestic Construction. Once you’ve acquired more expertise, you’ll be able to be more specific in the type of job you’d like to take on to boost your earnings potential.