Check before you buy, before you dig.

Pali are please to announce the launch of their new Development Packs. The packs can provide potential purchasers, or their solicitors, information regarding areas of land which are intended for development.

The components of the packs can be tailored to suite your requirements, but the basic components are:

Sewer/Drains & Water Mains Location
Electrical Apparatus Location
Gas Apparatus Location
BT Apparatus Location
Virgin Media Apparatus Location
Cable & Wireless Apparatus Location

Prices for the above start at £415.00 inc VAT.

Additional/Optional components include:

Local Authority Search from £88.53 inc VAT
Groundsure Review <5 Hectares £258.75 inc VAT
Groundsure Planview <15 Hectares £115.00 inc VAT

Depending upon location you may require various mining searches such as

Coal and Cheshire Brine: £80.00 inc VAT
Tin/ Metalliferous Mining Search from £55.00 inc VAT
China Clay/Ball Clay Search £66.40
Limestone Search £50.00
British Gypsum Mining Search £53.00

Be-spoke packs available on request.

Once construction has started, Pali will be happy to deal with your Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) Reports, On-Construction Energy Assessments and Home Information Pack requirements.

For more information please telephone 0151 691 1170 or email nick@paliltd.com

What is “Part L”?

The Building Regulations apply to building work in England & Wales and set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the safety and health for people in or about those buildings.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) publishes guidance on meeting the requirements in what are known as “Approved Documents“. The guidance contained in each document relates only to the particular requirements of the regulations that the document addresses. The building work will also have to comply with the requirements of any other relevant paragraphs in Schedule 1 to the regulations.

The fourteen ‘parts’ of Schedule I to the Building Regulations are:

Part A Structure
Part B Fire safety
Part C Site preparation and resistance to contaminants and moisture
Part D Toxic substances
Part E Resistance to the passage of sound
Part F Ventilation
Part G Hygiene
Part H Drainage and waste disposal
Part J Combustion appliances and fuel storage systems
Park K Protection from falling, collision and impact
Part L Conservation of fuel and power
Part M Access to and use of buildings
Part N Glazing - safety in relation to impact, opening and cleaning
Part P Electrical safety

“Part L - Conservation of fuel and power”

Part L of the Building Regulations (in England and Wales) was introduced by government on 6 April 2006, and it concerns the implementation of energy efficiency measures.
These regulations raise the energy efficiency of new buildings by 40%, compared with the Part L 2002 requirements. They also improve compliance by introducing new energy performance requirements for building services within all new buildings. The time for the building industry to comply with the new regulations has been tightened, and the transitional arrangements have been cut from the expected maximum of three years to just 12 months. Therefore all new buildings without full building plans approved by 6 April 2006 by the local authority, must comply with the new Part L requirements from 6 April 2006.
The new Part L requirements are as follows:
“Reasonable provision shall be made for the conservation of fuel and power in buildings by:
a. limiting:

   heat losses through the fabric of the building
   excessive solar gains and
   heat gains from pipes, ducts and vessels used for space heating, space    cooling and hot water storage

b. providing energy efficient and properly commissioned fixed building services with effective controls
c. providing to the owner sufficient information about the building and its building services so that the building can be operated and maintained in such a manner as to use no more fuel and power than is reasonable in the circumstances.”

The current version (and the previous 2005 interim version) of ‘Approved Document L: Conservation of fuel and power’ is split into four parts:

   Approved Document L1A: Conservation of fuel and power (New dwellings) (2006 edition)
   Approved Document L1B: Conservation of fuel and power (Existing dwellings) (2006 edition)
   Approved Document L2A: Conservation of fuel and power (New buildings other than dwellings) (2006 edition)

For more information please telephone Philip Graham on 0151 691 1170 or email phil@paliltd.com

Since April this year (2008) all residential properties being sold off-plan require a Home Information Pack (Hip). This can be quite expensive especially on larger developments. As we produce the components for the Hips in-house Pali can offer substantial savings for bulk order hips on new-build properties being sold on the same development.

What’s more if you instructed Pali to produce the initial SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) Reports on your development we can provide the Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) either Predictive or On-Construction for inclusion in your Home Information Packs (Hips) at no extra cost giving you further savings. 

Each property will have its own Hip individually hosted on Hipview to aid potential buyers and their solicitors. 

For more information please telephone 0151 691 1170 or email search@paliltd.com

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

On October 1^st Iain Wright MP who is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State gave a speech at the Governor’s House in London on the final Rollout of EPC’s for both residential and commercial energy performance certificates in England and Wales. The following information is a few extracts from that speech.

“Six months ago, at the time Energy Performance Certificates for newly built homes and larger commercial buildings were introduced, I was invited to speak to some of you about the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. At the time, I described the Directive, as a huge programme of work, a huge challenge and a huge opportunity - affecting all of us - private, public, property and energy sectors, and most importantly with the potential to affect every householder in the UK.”

As many NDEA’s and companies who employ non domestic energy assessors will agree, it has been a long arduous task from the introduction of home inspectors (HI) training all the way through to where we stand today in terms of preparing the IT systems, marketing etc and I believe that some companies may still not truly be ready for Jan 4^th.

“Today public buildings are showing Display Energy Certificates - rating how much energy a public sector building has actually used.

DECs are also a valuable tool in the fight against climate change. They show how building performance can be improved, saving not only carbon but public money. For the first time, visitors and staff can see just how much energy a building is using and also whether this has gone up or down over the last three years.”

As a search / home information pack provider we spend a lot of time in the councils around the country and the general consensus is that Display Energy Certificates are not being displayed, whether this is because they are being hidden or because they have not been carried out yet I don’t know, but I for one will be keeping my eyes open.

It has been reported to Pali ltd that some local authority building control departments are receiving standard domestic EPC’s (RdSAP) for newly constructed dwellings.

Since 6th April 2008  when a new building or a conversion from a non-dwelling to a dwelling is due to be signed off by building control it must have an On Construction SAP Calculation and an On Construction EPC. Not an RdSAP. This can be established on page two under “About this document”.

If the dwelling was completed  before 6^th April 2008 it will still have to have the full EPC produced by an On Construction Energy Assessor.

Any dwelling that has not yet been signed off by building control must have a Predictive Energy Assessment (PEA) before it can be marketed for sale or let.

Pali can assist in the production of all the different types of EPC required for developments or HIP’s. If you have any queries please contact Steve or Phil on 0151 691 1170. or phil@paliltd.com