DPE suspension: point of view of Denis Mora, president of the AC Environnement group

A brutal announcement by the Government in contradiction with its desire at the beginning of the summer to deploy the new DPE at all costs from July 1, while for the majority of real estate diagnostic professionals, the calculation software was not reliable. AC Environment was also in favor of postponing the application of the law indefinitely to July 1, believing that it took more time for the industry and especially for software developers to implement the new calculation method.

The decision taken by the Government at the beginning of autumn openly penalizes sellers of homes before 1975, starting with all those who have carried out transactions since July 1. What will happen to their sale? Will they see buyers contesting it if the DPE does not correspond to the reality of the energy performance of housing?

She demonstrates her ignorance of the profession of diagnostician and of the profession which is also penalized. Indeed, the consequences are colossal in legal terms (upsurge in potential litigation), financial (loss of turnover and profitability) and economic of a stoppage of the production of DPE for goods before 1975.

Once again, the diagnosticians find themselves between the hammer (the Ministry of Ecological Transition) and the anvil (the clients), even though they have been undergoing for several weeks the approximations of the reform of the DPE 2021 ... months, diagnosticians, companies and their employees have invested a considerable amount of time in training, in adapting their DPE calculation system and carried out their missions in a very professional manner, scrupulously respecting all the directives imposed on them, to satisfy their customers at best.

On form, AC Environnement deplores the lack of communication and listening. The profession was taken by surprise and confronted with a fait accompli by this secret announcement at the end of the week, without consultation with the diagnosticians. However, all professionals know it: we cannot stop the production of our reports from one day to the next at the risk of putting our clients, our people and our reputation in difficulty. As for our notary partners, how could they follow this recommendation when this decision does not have the force of law? We fully share their analysis and position.

In this context, AC Environnent decides to continue producing its DPEs and will offer its customers a free update if necessary.

The 3CL method, and more particularly the DPE calculation engine provided by the government to software publishers since July 1, has undergone numerous modifications, profoundly changing the results for certain cases. At each change, AC environnement has been able to maintain the continuity and reliability of the calculation despite the changes. AC environnement even updated the DPEs carried out prior to July 1, 2021, at the cost of painful efforts for our teams. At AC environnement, we are therefore able to continue to produce DPEs, even on goods from before 1975 and to guarantee the customer that their DPE can be updated free of charge, without travel, in the event of a future method change (under reserve that the evolution of the method does not contain new values ​​not recorded during our initial intervention).

We are going to integrate as quickly as possible in our reports a sentence of reservation indicating that, because of the position of the Ministry of Ecological Transition in its press release, our DPE loses its opposable character and has only an informative value. Its use in the context of a sale or rental is the sole responsibility of the owner and / or the notary. We will also add that we are available to the customer to modify his DPE in the event of changes to the 3CL method.

We are aware that the issue of DPE is a source of tension and uncertainty for all real estate diagnostic professionals. AC Environnement and the entire diagnostics industry are determined to quickly get out of this unstable period for all professionals: diagnosticians, real estate agents, notaries, etc. and building operators.

Op-ed by Denis Mora, Chairman of the AC Environnement group (LinkedIn).