Posted on 07/19/2008 6:44:16 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
HOME owners could be forced to turn their houses green before they can sell them under a proposal before the State Government. Planning Minister Justin Madden yesterday refused to comment on the proposal. The Master Builders Association wants laws to make it compulsory for owners of all existing homes to meet minimal environmental standards before they are allowed to sell them. The changes will cost each homeowner hundreds of dollars but the MBA says buyers of newly built homes are already being forced to meet five-star standards and they shouldn't be the only ones bearing the burden of helping the environment. The MBA's proposal includes making it mandatory for homeowners to: REPLACE single-flush toilets with dual flush-toilets when selling their home. INSTALL ceiling insulation. INSTALL low-consumption shower heads. THE MBA would also like inefficient electrical and whitegood products to be phased out. Master Builders executive director Brian Welch said that small changes to existing homes could have a big sustainability benefit.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
What state is this ????
Awe, Crikey!
TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand;
This will just effect my siblings and cousins...
State Building Codes regulate this kind of stuff - and they're never retroactive.
Lemme see here, pour money into something I want to unload, or have an accidental fire...
This is Australia we’re talking about, but it could very well show up in the good, old USA under an Obama administration.
seriously? Relatives there?
and maybe even with McCain. This global warming nonsense is so out of control it cannot be stopped me thinks.
NSW
I'm sure the Master Builders Association wouldn't mind. It'd just decrease the supply of housing so they get to build more.
It's just like it's never about the environment with the environmentalists. They're watermelons, green on the outside, red on the inside.
The Master Builders Association are just green on the outside, greed on the inside.
Nothing new here - people have always had to bring houses “up to code” before selling them - and “code” certainly changes from time to time!
Do I like it? No! I think a home should be “grandfathered” to the state of the construction art when it was built, and the buyer should BE AWARE (not beware - big difference!) But there is nothing new under the sun...it has always been necessary, to a certain degree, to pour some bucks into a property before it is sold off, and if that is what the market dictates, well...
If you have to sell it because you can’t afford it and now it costs hundreds more before you can sell it ... the choices are:
foreclosure
donating to a cult the local municipality can’t stand
creating a cult to get the tax write off
walking away and it turns into a drug house for lack of buyers
Help this ole' Yank out. Whazzat?
This will likely prove to be a very inefficient regulation. Many people remodel a house to suit their tastes — e.g.they want to put in the bathroom fixtures they want. Anyone forced to replace a toilet before selling, will put in the cheapest one that complies with the regulations. The new owners will then yank it out, and replace it with the one they want. The only way to avoid this, would be to make arrangements between the buyer and seller before the sale closes.
“Master Builders”
Ahh so they are using the Chicago method of getting more work. If people won’t hire you on their own then get a law passed forcing them.
I see a business opportunity - rent efficient toilets / lights / appliances from house showing to sale, then rip out and rent to next seller. The next generation of home “staging”.
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