Effective January 1, 2011, in accordance with Nevada Revised Statute ("NRS") 113.115, a seller of residential real property in Nevada must now prepare an energy consumption evaluation for the property before closing the transaction; unless it is waived by the buyer and seller, or meets one of the other exclusions.
What is an energy consumption evaluation and what does it entail? Essentially, the completion of the Energy Consumption Evaluation Form satisfies the regulation. Click on the Energy Consumption Evaluation Form to enlarge…
The rules for the form include:
- The form must be completed by the seller of the residential property or by a certified inspector.
- The person who completes the form shall sign the form and attest that the contents of the form are true and accurate to the best of the person’s knowledge.
- The evaluation of the energy consumption of residential property required by NRS 113.115 must be completed on the most recent version of the form. The form must not be modified, altered or amended in any manner except by or with the approval of the Commissioner.
To see the entire set of regulations regarding this new form, see the Nevada Energy Commissioner’s page on this topic.
Additionally, the Nevada Association of REALTORS has created a help guide called: How To Complete The Seller’s Energy Consumption Evaluation Form.
[Update: January 21, 2011] Nevada’s Real Estate Division has made some minor changes to the newly released “Seller’s Energy Consumption Evaluation Form” including a separate waiver form, "Seller’s Energy Consumption Evaluation Waiver".
Sully
Ahhh, I figured it out. Now the buyer can see where the missing kitchen cabinets went! 🙂
SmartMoney
More liberal nonsense. Lovely.
geopower
Yeah SM, this is definitely an ideological issue. Because conservatives don’t care what their utility bills are, or have to deal with the consequences when energy rates go up, or we have to build another powerplant to accommodate expanding usage. The sheet should be easy to fill out for anyone who has actually lived in their house, and there is no good reason for energy efficiency to be a partisan issue.
bob_c
NV energy has a recap of your last years usage by month online. Energy costs
and taxes are 2 fixed costs associated with any home and they can vary substantially.
Tom
Geo., it is the principle involved with the expansion of these government-mandated disclosures which I personally find troubling, because once started, they seem to snowball. California has way too many seller disclosure obligations in my view, and I hope Nevada doesn’t go that way. You could accidentally violate the rules just by inadvertently not recalling all of the various items to be reported in the forms, and much of the reported items merely provide a re-negotiation opportunity for a buyer.
Has a roof leak ever been repaired? Anyone ever died in the house, and of what cause? What about any history of water leakage? Any ceilings been scraped smooth, if so, you better have a lab report on the dust, to establish that you haven’t violated a disclosure duty. Any of several various substances been removed/discovered? What are seller’s average utility bills?
How badly do we truly need an avuncular agency of government to take care of us in our private dealings? An affirmative obligation on the seller’s part to disclose known, existing defects should be sufficent. As to anything further, I say let the buyer hire a qualified home inspector and leave it at that.
Guy Johnson
bob_c,
That’s a good tip. I went to NV Energy’s site and found a link for their “Energy Audit“. It looks like you might have to sign up for their online “MyAccount” feature.
From that page: “MyAccount gives you the tools you need to perform a comprehensive energy audit of your home. Compare your use with similar homes, track your energy use over time, look at your billing history and discover specific ways to lower your electric bill.”
Sully
geopower, this form does nothing to promote conservation nor does it give the government a step up in analyzing future power plant needs. Trust me, when this area needs another power plant – NV Energy will be sending out warning notices long in advance.
There is no apparent reason for this form, other than an opportunity for the government to invade your privacy. If they want to know how much power you use, they can go to NV Energy and find out. Unless, of course, the buyer wants to know what happened to the missing kitchen cabinets.
GreenNV
As a consumer protection, the annual energy usage would be a valid disclosure – good for comparing properties and budgeting for utility bills.
The rest of the new required disclosure is garbage and busy work. Any buyer or property inspector can easily discern the percentage of lighting types and location of insulation. The form work is flawed – compact fluorescent lighting is not necessarily “curly bulbs” and there is no such thing as an Energy Star rated microwave. If the appliances are Energy Star rated, the seller has probably already disclosed in the listing or the buyer’s inspector can easily determine this if it is important to the buyer. Am I wrong, Guy, that any realtor is going to recommend checking off “unknown” to most of the disclosures?
Guy Johnson
GreenNV,
I predict most listing agents will attempt to get both parties to waive the form (see bottom of page four of the form).
Sully
As a consumer protection, the annual energy usage would be a valid disclosure – good for comparing properties and budgeting for utility bills.
Yes it would be, if we all used the same amount of gas and electric. However, utility companies have found that we don’t and therefore encourage everyone to be more efficient. Knowing how much gas/electric the previous owner used, only helps to determine if you are frugal or wasteful in comparison.
A home (property) inspection, which is highly recommended anyway, would answer most of the other questions.
Zen
More red tape! Excellent! Is there any reason why a concerned buyer couldn’t have just required a seller to provide the previous 12 months of utility bills? Couldn’t a buyer even make approval of the utility costs a condition of the sale? Will we now see lawsuits because the new owner likes to keep their heat 10 degrees higher in the winter than the previous owner? Welcome to America, Land of the Laws, or is it Lost?
smarten
Hey Zen –
Why require the seller to disclose his/her/its last 12 months’ worth of utility bills?
As part of a buyer’s due diligence, he/she/it can simply make the request upon S/W gas and NV Energy and secure it him/her/itself.
Happy New Year to all!
Zen
Smarten,
You are right, nice work. I forgot it was that easy, maybe because I never cared. Good thing our fearless leaders spent their time coming up with this garbage. It’s not like they should have been focusing on the economy or education.
MikeZ
As a potential buyer, I would appreciate knowing what to expect for energy costs.
MikeZ
As part of a buyer’s due diligence, he/she/it can simply make the request upon S/W gas and NV Energy and secure it him/her/itself.
I very much doubt that you can get my last 12 months of energy records from NV Energy. If you can, that’s a real privacy matter that needs to addressed.
Zen
MikeZ:
“As a potential buyer, I would appreciate knowing what to expect for energy costs.”
Well then Mike, you could have always asked. Instead we all now have one more thing to add on to the paper pile when the rest of us buy or sell a home. The four page document, which is now required, asks questions regarding your windows, light bulbs, appliances, thermostat, heating system, cooling system, etc., etc. I’m not saying that it is a bad idea to do your due diligence and find these kinds of things out if it’s important to you. What I am saying is that this nanny state mentality that requires we all do these kinds of things is what’s choking business in this country. If you have done any kind of business over the last couple of decades or longer, you must know what I am talking about. The paperwork gets longer and longer and longer. It’s not so much the paperwork, but the garbage required to do in the paperwork. Where does it end? How many rules and regulations do we need to make everything perfect?
MikeZ
The four page document, which is now required …
“The Seller and the Buyer may waive this form …”
The document is not required.
geopower
yes, most of this is stuff that comes up in a normal inspection anyway. No, it shouldn’t take that long to deal with. Even if the buyer wants it filled out, it really isn’t that arduous for the seller. Everybody deals with a whole mess of paperwork during the sale anyway, most of it is for the loan documents, and much less intelligible than this, which at least deals with the condition of the house itself. I think Mike and Guy are right. Most people will probably just waive this along with the lead-paint advisory on any older homes.
When I bought my house, I did look into the utility costs and state of the appliances, I expect most people do, but this is a convenient way to compile that data. I’m not worried about a government invasion of privacy, they won’t be sending the goon squad to rip out my obsolete dishwasher. So maybe it’s flawed, but I still think it’s a good idea for buyers to think about the efficiency of the house they’re buying, and this form would promote that. Unless you don’t want to, then waive it. It’ll take less time than complaining about it here.