Homeowners may be forced to turn houses green before sale

Tag : Shower Head & Shower Set

HOME owners could be forced to turn their houses green before theyare allowed to sell them under a proposal before the StateGovernment.
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 homesto meet minimal environmental standards before they are allowed tosell them.
The changes will cost each homeowner hundreds of dollars but theMBA says buyers of newly built homes are already being forced tomeet five-star standards and they shouldn't be the only onesbearing 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 theirhome.
INSTALL ceiling insulation.
INSTALL low-consumption shower heads.
THE MBA would also like inefficient electrical and whitegoodproducts to be phased out.
Master Builders executive director Brian Welch said that smallchanges to existing homes could have a big sustainability benefit.
"In Victoria there are 1.9 million homes, which were notrequired to meet energy efficiency regulations when they werebuilt," he said.
"We support retro-fitting these homes with sensibleinstallations such as dual-flush toilets, efficient shower heads,ceiling and wall insulation where possible to bring them up toscratch.
"Victoria has hundreds of thousands of ancient water-wastingsingle-flush toilets and for every one we convert to dual flush,35,000 litres of water can be saved per year."
Mr Welch said installing roof insulation in every Victorian homewould reduce heating and cooling power consumption by more than 45per cent a year.
He said 14 per cent of a household's water was used in the showerbut this could be halved with a low-flow shower head. He said anefficient shower would save 30,000l of water per household a year.
Mr Welch said exemptions would be given to the needy.
A government spokeswoman said 90 per cent of homes already haddual-flush toilets and that 193,000 homeowners had taken advantageof government rebates on water-efficient shower heads, dual flushtoilets, garden products and rainwater tanks.
She said these changes saved 1.6 billion litres of drinking water ayear.
While refusing to comment on whether the Government was consideringthe MBA's proposal, the spokeswoman said the Government wouldcontinue to work collaboratively with industry and consumers todevelop policy. Share this article What is this?