“Errors galore” in energy performance diagnostics, according to 60 million consumers

While housing with the worst energy performance diagnosis will gradually become impossible to rent from 2023, the very reliability of these DPEs, which classify housing from A to G, is called into question. In a survey published on Tuesday May 24 that franceinfo was able to consult, the association 60 million consumers notes “mistakes galore”. The same accommodation can be assessed differently depending on the diagnostician.

>> Real estate: when the future ban on the rental of energy strainers “blocks the market”

In the survey of 60 million consumers, a house located in Corbeil-Essonnes (Essonne) for example received three different ratings, C, D or E, depending on the professional who evaluated it. Two of them were wrong about its date of construction and its area by adding 25 m².

The association thus tested four houses for sale by having each one examined by five different diagnosticians. While each owner should have received the same result five times, professionals have sometimes forgotten doors, windows, or poorly taken into account ventilation, heat pumps or even insulation work.

This could therefore change everything in the coming months for owners affected by the Climate and Resilience Law. Indeed, from next September, rents will be frozen for so-called “energy strainers” of classes F and G.

Then, housing whose consumption exceeds 450 kWh/m² per year, which concerns around 70,000 housing units in the private sector, will be prohibited from being rented. The 600,000 G-rated homes (>420KWh/m².year) will be withdrawn from the market from 2025. In 2028, it will be the turn of 1.2 million F-rated homes then, in 2034, 2.6 million of classified E housing that can no longer be rented out.