<story><title>In Greece, Property Is Debt</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/opinion/in-greece-property-is-debt.html?em_pos=small&amp;emc=edit_dk_20161102&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;nl_art=17&amp;nlid=65508833&amp;ref=headline&amp;te=1&amp;referer=</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saiya-jin</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;And yet, the leftist government recently proposed adding further documents and costs to selling or renting property — a compulsory “energy performance” certificate and a civil engineer’s assurance that there are no illegal constructions.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Not an expert, nor a citizen&amp;#x2F;resident, but these seem like a basic things to do. Parents back home had to provide same things recently just for renovation, and much more.&lt;p&gt;There are laws to address this, albeit considered kind of a joke in southern Europe for a long time. People would build whatever they wanted, hack together unsafe constructions to cut costs, then bribe an official to validate all of that. Then earthquake comes and people die. Standards for buildings are reactions to disasters, I don&amp;#x27;t see anything wrong with it.&lt;p&gt;Or am I missing something?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>liotier</author><text>Energy performance certificate, non-toxicity certificate, surface certificate, non-pledge certificate... The basics of a real estate sale in France - they make the transaction more transparent and I&amp;#x27;m glad they are mandatory, both as a former buyer and a former seller... They remove a lot of the friction that distrust creates. Framing it as &amp;quot;red tape&amp;quot; that “threaten to turn the country into an endless ‘property graveyard’ where nothing will be sold, nothing will be bought and nothing will be rented” is laughable !</text></comment>
<story><title>In Greece, Property Is Debt</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/opinion/in-greece-property-is-debt.html?em_pos=small&amp;emc=edit_dk_20161102&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;nl_art=17&amp;nlid=65508833&amp;ref=headline&amp;te=1&amp;referer=</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saiya-jin</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;And yet, the leftist government recently proposed adding further documents and costs to selling or renting property — a compulsory “energy performance” certificate and a civil engineer’s assurance that there are no illegal constructions.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Not an expert, nor a citizen&amp;#x2F;resident, but these seem like a basic things to do. Parents back home had to provide same things recently just for renovation, and much more.&lt;p&gt;There are laws to address this, albeit considered kind of a joke in southern Europe for a long time. People would build whatever they wanted, hack together unsafe constructions to cut costs, then bribe an official to validate all of that. Then earthquake comes and people die. Standards for buildings are reactions to disasters, I don&amp;#x27;t see anything wrong with it.&lt;p&gt;Or am I missing something?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>arethuza</author><text>In the middle of selling&amp;#x2F;buying here in Scotland and energy performance certificates are mandatory and actually very useful - this was a significant factor in helping us choose a property.&lt;p&gt;Similarly sellers have to get a professional surveyor to do a survey which is that available to all potential buyers.</text></comment>