CT Homeowners and Property Managers May Have To Disclose Energy Costs

According to an article by the Energy News Network, there is a debate on a new piece of legislation that would require homeowners and property managers to disclose a residency’s energy costs. If it were to pass, it would require the disclosure of a year’s worth of energy bills from the property.

The Debate

Environmental regulators want to pass this piece of legislation. According to Katie S. Dykes, the commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, this measure will not only provide new leasees/homeowners an idea of what their energy bills may be, but also incentivize homeowners and property managers to make efficiency improvements.

The real estate lobby is fighting this bill.
Their main argument is that energy bills can be misleading, as everyone uses
energy in a different way. Some residents crank the heat in the winter while
others will keep the temperature cool. Maybe someone who works from home uses
more energy than someone who works in an office.

Learning From Massachusetts

A similar bill was proposed in Massachusetts
two years ago but failed. The organizations backing this bill are attempting to
learn from Massachusetts’s mistakes by making one slight change.

The Massachusetts bill would make homeowners
get a full home energy audit when selling their homes.

The Connecticut bill wanted to make it easier.
Instead of forcing you to get a full home energy audit, it allows you to get
around that by just supplying a year’s worth of energy bills to whoever was
purchasing or leasing the property.

However, as you can see from the real estate
lobby’s argument in the previous section, this still comes under scrutiny as
energy use varies.

Overall, there are very few
states/municipalities that have this type of legislation. Only time will tell
whether Connecticut will join them.