Home Energy Score Portland 2018 – Must Know Guide

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The final rules have been adopted for the 2018 Portland mandatory Home Energy Score. If anyone (see the few exceptions below) wants to sell their home in the Portland real estate market in 2018 and beyond, they will have to pay for a home energy score before they advertise their home for sale, if their home falls within the City of Portland boundaries.

Nine things you must know about the Home Energy Score

1. The Home Energy Score must and can only be performed by a state licensed “Home Energy Assessor.”

2. Home Energy Scores are good for two years after completed. After two years another Home Energy Score must be obtained.

3. You can void your Home Energy Score by making any alteration to the home that affects the windows, insulation, HVAC, or anything else expected to impact the results.

4. To find out if your home must have a mandatory Home Energy Score, go to PortlandMaps.com and look under “Jurisdiction” after typing in your address. If Portland is listed as the city, you have to get a Home Energy Score before selling your home, assuming it is a “covered dwelling” which basically includes all homes on their own lots – think regular homes and townhomes, but not high-rise condos.

5. It does not matter if you sell your home with a Portland real estate agent or if you sell for sale by owner, you have to obtain a Home Energy Score before putting your home up for sale.

6. The Home Energy Score must be a part of the online advertisement for the home for sale and a paper copy must be available inside the home.

7. Every single Home Energy Score is publicly available here: GreenBuildingRegistry.com.

8. Exceptions are few and far in-between. Trustee sales, foreclosure sales, and short sales are exempt. You can make an exception request “due to special circumstances” no later than 10 business days prior to the date of listing the covered building for sale by email with the subject “City of
Portland Home Energy Score Program Exemption Request” to
HESinfo@portlandoregon.gov. You may also see a high performance waiver for new construction homes with excellent green energy features partnering with Energy Trust.

9. Violations: repeating, never-ending $500 fines until resolved.

As you can tell, the city of Portland is taking the new home energy score requirement seriously. This will soon be the new reality for the Portland real estate market. As of right now, only the city of Portland proper will have this requirement. It is yet to be seen if Portland suburbs will adopt the Home Energy Score.

Looking for a home energy score company?

After writing this article, I started one – OrderHomeEnergyScore.com llc CCB#218360. Read why here.

Couple additional recommendations.
First, if you are considering adding making an energy improvement to your Portland home, here is another incentive. Typically adding insulation is the best way to improve your energy efficiency (it is not windows, new HVAC systems, etc.). Second, if you are in a Portland suburb and are glad you don’t have to get an energy score, you might want to anyway. Portland area buyers will quickly get used to the idea of seeing a home energy score and when they come shopping your way, it might be helpful to provide them one. This is especially true if your home is energy efficient! It will become even more important to make this information accessible to Portland home buyers.

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