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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 03/17/16
    First Name: David
    Last Name: Siddiqui
    Organization: N/A
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AA27

  • Comment

    Utility costs can be a large portion of the operational expenses for a property, and these costs disproportionately impact very low, low, and moderate income families by taking a larger percentage of their income. I support the integration of utility information into the disclosure process for residential properties to provide more transparency in residential real estate transactions, provide homebuyers with important information, and potentially support the foundation for allowing the energy performance of a home to more consistently and appropriately influence the market value and underwriting process for residential properties. The integration of energy information into the real estate transaction process is long overdue in the residential sector, and utility info disclosure requirements would be an important step in the right direction. Rather than trying to capture the utility history from the utilities directly, the responsibility could be placed on the sellers to provide at least one year of utility bill history (or as long as they have if they owned the property for less than one year) along with all other required disclosures.