There is a new breed of professionals who you will get to know about now when you start out to sell your home. They are called Domestic Energy Assessors and are out now in England and Wales performing a brand new service.

The role of the Domestic Energy Assessor is to produce Energy Performance Certificates for inclusion in Home Information Packs. If this is complete news to you then just think of these as being certificates, like those you see on new fridges, which will provide A-G ratings on the energy efficiency of a home, plus advice on how to make further energy savings.

Energy Assessors will use their in-depth knowledge and practical understanding of the thermal performance of your home to judge on the thermal energy efficiency of properties.

This requirement has been introduced by the UK government working on the theory that these assessments of the the capability of all buildings about to be sold will encourage us all to be energy efficient. This will be good for the nation as it will be thoroughly green. It will the idea is, help avoid the need for the energy whether renewable or not.

This type of certificate is required whenever the building is constructed, sold or rented.

In the short term home owners directly, and home buyers indirectly, will need to pay for these Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) and in order to possibly carry out work to improve poorly insulated properties, they will need to pay for general advice to clients on energy efficiency measures.

This is all very good in principle, but the UK government has chosen exactly the wrong time to do this. The credit crunch is hitting the house sales market hard, it is already very difficult to sell properties, and the value of most of them is falling.

The staff that produce Energy Performance Certificates are very experienced in construction technology, building condition surveying and domestic energy assessment and are Degree qualified professionals. They do not come cheap!

Now we do accept that most assessors will not simply stop at inspecting your property, they should also take the time to explain exactly what they are inspecting, how they are going to go about it and gladly answer any questions that you may have. But, most sellers are going to deeply object to being forced by the state to take on this additional burden of cost.

The energy assessor takes measurements to analyse the cost of heating, water and lighting for a house and makes recommendations to improve the energy performance of the house. To me it looks like you the government may think that an assessment is a quick hour in the property and thats it. I doubt they have fully considered the travel time to and from the houses to be assessed, time taken to assess, time to prepare and check the report, input the data, produce the certificate and then charge a fee which includes the professionals insurance, accountant fees, advertising and many other costs - the list goes on and on, after all they will have to make a living like everyone else.

The introduction of EPC's is being phased in for smaller properties as and when sufficient energy assessors become qualified and fully accredited. Rental properties will follow suit later in the year. For the safety of homeowners who after all will be inviting these assessors into their homes, each Energy Assessor has to go through a range of background checks, including Criminal Records Bureau, DVLA, Financial identity and qualification checks, before then being accepted as a member of an official certification scheme.

DEA's have in general agreed to put themselves under strict quality monitoring regimes and have said they will be looking at the standards of service and accuracy and reliability of all reports being produced.

One home owner at least has protested at this "very intrusive measure", with assessors who will "actually look at how your house is put together".

The best advice that we can give homeowners is that when you appoint your Domestic Energy Assessor, do make sure you appoint a completely independent expert who is part of a team of trained and accredited Domestic Energy Assessors, ensuring the advice they provide is accurate, objective and wholly impartial.

Don't forget that the certificate also lists the potential rating of the building if all the cost-effective measures were installed, and for some this can be very valuable and save quite a lot of money for them if they implement the recommended improvements, even without moving home!