By CHERYL MARKWOOD
Starting next year, homeowners in Alaska will be required to obtain an energy rating before listing their home for sale. Not only will you be responsible for paying for this rating, but you must also file the results with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and provide the energy report to any prospective buyers.
This applies to all home sellers in the Fairbanks North Start Borough, including those who list their own homes and for those who are selling burned-out, frozen, or foreclosed homes. Every home will have to have an energy rating even if it sells again the following year.
The first time we in real estate heard about this final rule was when we received this letter from the State Department of Environmental Conservation on Jan. 21:
This regulation, 18 AAC 50.081, has already been signed and will take effect after Dec. 31, 2025. It is part of the State’s Implementation Plan for improving air quality in the Interior, but it will have a profound and negative impact on Alaska’s entire housing market and economy.
There is only one week left to make your voice heard on this issue. The public comment period ends Feb. 7.
I encourage you to read the regulation (pasted at the bottom of this column) and submit your comments to help prevent this unnecessary government overreach. You can comment here: EPA Regulation Comment Page. You can send a message to Gov. Mike Dunleavy here. You can send a message to the commissioner of DEC by writing to [email protected]
Read the Greater Fairbanks Board of REALTORS’ call to action, with many important points that impact all Alaska homeowners, here:
The regulation in question mandates that before you can list your home for sale, you must have an energy rating completed by an energy rater.
The cost for this rating can be $950 or more, which is an additional cost on top of the already expensive process of selling a home. The results of the energy rating must be provided to buyers and submitted to the DEC.
This is blatant government overreach. It will severely impact Alaska’s housing economy and put a strain on homeowners who simply want to buy or sell property. The regulation applies to all residential buildings, regardless of age or condition, even homes that have already been significantly improved to lower energy costs over the years.
As an example, I live in a house built in 1939. Despite making numerous upgrades, the energy rating for my home may only be 3 out of 6 stars- a rating that could negatively impact the sale price of my property. The energy rating system is arbitrary, and if the State of Alaska DEC continues to adjust the scales, properties could see even lower ratings in the future.
The regulation raises more questions than answers:
Does a dry cabin need an energy rating?
What about a condo or a house that was previously damaged by fire and is being sold as a shell?
What happens when a property is sold and resold multiple times over the course of a few years?
Will the energy rating be required each time?
This law also opens the door to what is essentially a $950 tax on every home, condo, or cabin sale in this part of the state. There’s a lot of uncertainty about how this will be enforced and how it will affect the value of homes, especially older properties with lower energy ratings.
Most importantly, this regulation infringes on the fundamental rights of homeowners. It places unnecessary barriers between us and our ability to sell property we rightfully own. This is a clear overreach by the government into our personal rights and responsibilities. The law will force homeowners to pay for an energy rating before being allowed to sell, taking away our right to dispose of property freely.
I strongly encourage everyone to submit comments on this regulation by Feb. 7 to ensure we protect our ability to sell homes without excessive government interference. Let’s work together to protect our housing market, our property rights, and the future of real estate in Alaska.
Cheryl Markwood owns Markwood Realty in Fairbanks and writes as an individual Alaska and not in her capacity as a member of the Alaska Real Estate Commission.
The regulatory code discussed in this column is provided below.
18 Alaska Admin. Code § 50.081
Section 18 AAC 50.081 – Real estate transaction requirements; weatherization and energy efficiency
(a) In an area identified in 18 AAC 50.015(b)(3), the following requirements apply:
(1) after December 31, 2025, a residential building owner must have an energy ratingcompleted by an energy rater before listing the building or property for sale; the residential building owner shall pay for the costs of the energy rating; the energy rater shall provide information about weatherization resources as part of the energy rating report; the residential building owner must give the energy rating report to the buyer simultaneously with the seller’s Residential Real Property Transfer Disclosure Statement from the Real Estate Commission; the residential building owner must submit the energy rating report to the department in a format provided by or approved by the department;
(2) the owner of any building being sold in which a wood-fired heating device is located must register the device, using a form or method provided by the department unless the wood-fired device previously has been registered under 18 AAC 50.077(h);
(3) the buyer of any building in which a wood-fired heating device is located must submit a change of ownership notification to the department for any device previously registered under 18 AAC 50.077(h) or (2) of this subsection and must register any previously
undisclosed wood-fired heating devices, using a form or method provided by the department;
(4) the owner, seller, and buyer of any building being sold in which a wood- or coal-fired heating device is located must comply with all applicable requirements under 18 AAC 50.077(h) and (l) – (n) and 18 AAC 50.079(b) and (f) – (h).
(b) An agent shall ensure compliance with all requirements of this section. To ensure compliance, the agent must
(1) inform the seller or buyer, as applicable, of the seller’s or buyer’s obligations under this section, 18 AAC 50.077, and 18 AAC 50.079; and
(2) ensure during a real estate transaction that the seller or buyer, as applicable, has performed all activities required under 18 AAC 50.077(h) and (l) – (n) and 18 AAC 50.079(b) and (f) – (h) or must personally ensure compliance with those requirements.
(c) If the agent has complied with (b)(1) of this section, the agent may not be liable for the failure to disclose to a buyer the presence of a noncompliant wood-fired heating device known by a seller but not disclosed to the agent.
(d) In this section,
(1) “agent” means any party who enters into a contract with an owner, seller, or buyer,
including any party who enters into a contract with a representative of the seller or buyer,
for the purpose of selling or buying any building;
(2) “energy rater” means a person authorized to perform energy ratings by the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation under 15 AAC 155.530, revised as of June 14, 2010, and adopted by reference;
(3) “energy rating” has the meaning given in 15 AAC 155.990, revised as of April 3, 2013, and adopted by reference;
(4) “residential building” has the meaning given in 15 AAC 155.990, revised as of April 3, 2013, and adopted by reference. 18 AAC 50.081
Eff. 12/8/2024, Register 252, January 2025
Authority:AS 46.03.020
AS 46.14.010
AS 46.14.020
AS 46.14.030
Sec. 30, ch. 74, SLA 1993
The information is available from the utility companies. Ask for a 5-year average for electrical and gas. We don’t need the Devil’s Castle to interfere in our lives. The more dependent you become, the closer to slavery you are. Don’t trade your success for failure. Be responsible and keep your head up.
More and more like California.
Where is the governor? Silent.
Exacxly. I have always said Dunleavy is spineless, He won’t stand up to bureaucracy to help the people with the PFD robbery, he wouldn’t stand up to the bloated and corrupt UAA. But you aren’t allowed to speak your opinion about Dunleavy on MRAK.
I’m afraid there’s a Paper Tiger in that position! Funny how we end up with that when it’s a Republican, but all the Demoncrats roll hard.
The EPA is an illegitimate federal agency. NEPA is an unconstitutional usurpation of power by congress. Environmental regulation is not an enumerated power of the federal government. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Public officials swearing an oath to the Unites States Constitution are duty bound to disregard this Air Quality State Implementation Plan and all other environmental laws and regulations prescribed and administered in association with NEPA and the EPA.
There’s a hole in your argument. 18 AAC 50 is a state regulation.
Dee Cee, yes it is a state regulation but likely the state DEC has connections to the EPA one way or another. Years ago before moving to AK our local government instituted “international building codes” that were being pushed by state and federal agencies.
More commie control for the LibTard matrix.
This sh$+ never ends.
Govt should focus on infrastructure and public safety.
Our legislature is being run by traitorous RINO’s and Librard progressives.
Sic Semper Tyrannis!
First off, knee jerk reaction. Will read more fully in a bit.
is this from an overstepping agency regulator(s)? Or is this passed by the legislature?
If legislature, we need to know who proposed it, all cosponsors, and all “yes” voters.
Good question. It may have been passed by the North Star Borough Assembly members to start. I think word would have gotten out had the state legislature passed a bill requiring this new regulation but I am not sure without doing more research.
Kenaimike, Second reply after research. The regulation did not require legislative action on the part of the North Star Borough Assembly or state legislature. Typical tactics of the enviros to bypass elected officials and create laws on their own. They got smacked down by the June 2024 SCOTUS undoing of the Chevron Doctrine but they still keep testing the water. Also figure President Trump’s Administration and EPA Director may have a say in this prior to its 12/31/25 start date.
It’s a state agency. You need to look at the authorities granted to them by the legislature in AS 46. The new director of the air quality division at ADEC, Jason Olds, is a power grabber. He’s been expanding ADEC’s authority with loose interpretations of the statutes ever since they day he stepped into that job. It would help to address comments to the regulation but phone calls to the governors office and the commissioner.
You’re arguing that its still okay.. when it is an over reach that needs to be shut down.
Dee Cee, appreciate your information.
nope.
The AAC is an entity of each department creating their own regulations without legal advice and instituting them into regulations administratively through their department head and on to the Lt. Governor’s office to add to the Administrative regulations that the public is not aware of and is not a [art of the statutes, AS, unless and until it is worded into language for a separate bill to address an issue to go before the legislative body to be voted on for signature of the governor.
The author is mixing apples and oranges to “lie to and fool” the public into making comments under one section in order for this to pass without you, the public, being fully aware of the ramifications without legal advice in either circumstances. Don’t be fooled and don’t accept the lie by this author. Think, and don’t react without legal advice of a property attorney.
Each of the State agencies have access to staff lawyers – and they use them…
Not all group activity is legal activity. Was this don on the job? Where and when exactly did they get this personal jurisdiction over private properties within the boundaries of this state. Show me exactly in the US Constitution, the letter of the the law that gave anyone personal jurisdiction over someone else’s property
What a super important person. Oh There is no one with that authority? What day how exactly did they get subject matter jurisdiction. To have that subject matter jurisdiction do they also have to have a license? You can’t just imagine a nice ladylike subject matter jurisdiction expressed by the people with their consent I writing before you can snatch it and bequeath to yourself except in Alaska. So supra.
And thot is why we need sheriffs for instance
You know enforce only US Constitutional things.
I would encourage everyone in Alaska to submit their comments. Many outside of Fairbanks will say they don’t care because it doesn’t affect them. Well this is just the start and it will eventually reach everywhere if not challenged. The woodstoves in Fairbanks are a public health hazard and need to be addressed, but the energy rating thing is a bridge too far.
Dave Hanna, you ae exactly right. The overreach will only grow bigger if Alaskans do not speak out before it is too late.
Stop electing the people who are breaking you.
There the EPA goes again, legislating from behind the bureaucracy that will not only add days or weeks or months to the process of selling a home, but also make it more expensive. No one voted for this. No one, except for the enviro-nazis, knew this was coming down the pike. Then, blamm-o, like outlawing gas stoves and making gas water heaters more expensive, there’s a new law. This has to stop. If they’re going to it, then they should be proud of it and work through Congress to get it passed, rather than handing it off during the dark of night in a back-alley deal to impact the lives of people who did not vote for them.
Well, this is going no where good! War on heat in the coldest part of the state. What if the woodstove functions as a ‘back up’ to the primary heat source? Most people have the stove for emergency power outages or to off set the cost of the more expensive heat source on the coldest days or months. Now, the gov’t wants to know who owns a stove so they can yank a person’s primary source of heat forcing them to buy something “approved” that they won’t be able to afford. That’s not overreach, it’s tyranny!
So I guess places out in the Bush are exempt, this is beyond stupid.
Hey, why not do away with real estate disclosures altogether? They are, after all, so unnecessary and troublesome. Caveat emptor, folks.
Good luck to all.
yawn.
Couldn’t help but wonder how much the communist majority on FNSB assembly had to do with this. They are always overly cozy with the AK DEC and the EPA. Very difficult to imagine this actually standing, but if it does, people need to start filing lawsuits against INDIVIDUALS who do these ratings for home devaluation.
Wow…needs repealed ASAP! Although I doubt Fairbankians will do anything about it.
B, most Fairbanksans and North Polers simply don’t have time to do anything about it – we’re too busy working to heat our homes. A person I knew who worked only three months as an ADEC chimney cop quit because she was being met by homeowners bearing arms. This will be the more typical reaction – and an alternative means of conveying and recording property will be created apart from government regs and taxation. Tyranny will not stand.
This appears to be what we are seeing nationwide with outlawing wood stoves and forcing home-owners/landlords to convert wood stoves and fireplaces to natural gas or electric. Then your “usage” of either gas or electricity can be controlled by those who wish to control it “for your own good.”
The usage control of gas, and electricity may coming very quickly for the Anchorage/Mat-Su Bowl because we are running out of gas so says the state and the utility companies. Ready for scheduled rolling blackouts?
As Reagan said. If a law is passed, and you are accused of breaking it. You are innocent until proven guilty. If a regulation is passed, it has the full force of the law and you are guilty as can be until you sue. Time to get rid of these ridiculous agencies and their unconstitutional regulations!
Long story of my involvement in this issue that won’t be enumerated here… Remember that o’brandon wanted to ban heating oil and propane, while providing enough steer dung to heat Fairbanks most winters. They let forest fires burn, but we can’t heat our homes with wood. Mr. President and Mr. Governor, time to eliminate rogue agencies aand blacklist their employees. The chevron doctrine has been overthrown. Ronald Reagan had his Grace Commission review the entirety of the federal regulation and make recommendations for the removal of regulations – we need this done for the entirety of the CFR and AAC, and find a way to make sure they aren’t simply reinstituted with the next administration. NEPA is an abomination. To inflict NEPA and its derivatives on the real estate market is a milestone in the communist takeover of the U.S. and our freedoms. Who will be the “energy raters”? Who stands to make significant money from this theft from property owners? I don’t think our liberal Alaska courts will help us with this either. Thank you Cheryl Markwood for bringing this to our attention.
The Alaska Constitution recognizes a right to privacy. Section 22:
““The right of the people to privacy is recognized and shall not be infringed.”
This regulation also violates the 4th amendment of the US Constituion:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The government can no more enforce this unconstituional regulation than they can just enter your home without a warrant.
Dunleavy needs to get a handle on his bureacrats- this ADEC action is in violation of Administrative Order 325:
Administrative Order No. 325
I, Mike Dunleavy, Governor of the State of Alaska, under the authority of Article III, Sections 1, 16, and 24, of the Alaska Constitution, hereby order state agencies to take the actions set forth herein to protect the sovereign authority of the State of Alaska and guard the Constitutional rights of individual Alaskans from federal overreach. The order reads, in part:
“BACKGROUND
Recent actions and statements by President Biden attempt to control the health and welfare of Alaskans; an area clearly within the sovereign authority of the State of Alaska under the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. (“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”)
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses and other property, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Alaska Constitution, Article I, Section 14, see S. Constitution, Fourth Amendment.”
https://gov.alaska.gov/admin-orders/administrative-order-no-325/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20right%20of%20the%20people,Constitution%2C%20Fourth%20Amendment.
On 6/28/24 SCOTUS overruled the 1984 Chevron Doctrine. As a result of this ruling, any rogue agency trying to go above their role and make law can be questioned and challenged. Is the state DEC is trying to skirt this ruling? And why is the state Attorney General and Governor Dunleavy allowing it?
Thanks for the heads-up, Cheryl!
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Tell us Alaska’s real-estate industry will –not– comply with this sh… stuff.
Defy, disrupt, defeat, overcome, nullify through noncompliance, shouldn’t be hard to shove this sh… stuff right back where it came from, get the perpetrators fired and escorted out of their offices, plus sign us up to help make it happen?
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You ready to do this, Cheryl?
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Of couse this sh… stuff won’t happen on “tribal” lands, maybe another reason for frog-marching these bast… fools right out of their comfy offices into the nearest bumcamp?
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Nothing in America’s Constitution obliges homeowners to “obtain energy ratings before listing homes for sale”.
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So, may we suggest, Cheryl, tell these bast… persons to go to hell with their “energy ratings before listing homes for sale”; productive Alaskans’ll figure out some way around their sh… regulations, and maybe, just maybe, figure out how to get their sorry ass… selves fired right out the door and debarred from further government employment in the process.
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Governor D., you can make this go away… can you help us out?
Do you really think the governor is going to help you in this endeavor? He picks and employs these people to do this covert work,
Google …….state of alaska AAC Index
When the index comes up, choose the section you are interested in and remember that you are looking and reading work that is policy but used as law. It is pushed to the public as law and if it won’t fit or someone brings a critical question of any part of what you read, the administration finds a legislative person to crate a bill and get it through committee to the governor desk for his signature.
How many times have you looked in this index to understand how the new bill is made that, if you could have changed, you would have made the effort? Get to the commissioner that allowed this bill to read the way toi does and complain to the commissioner before it takes on the looks of a bill.
Thanx for your note. Good points.
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Won’t know if we don’t ask the Guv, either way it’ll be helpful to find out, get something specific on the record so we can figure out Plan B.
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Looks like The Mob saw a chance to grab some vig out of home sales which aren’t on tribal lands.
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Get that on the record, it’s hard to imagine any American worthy of the name complying with something like that, be it law, rule, or regulation.
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Then there’s jury nullification, what homeowner-juror wouldn’t invoke jury nullification?
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Americans who are resourceful enough to win two world wars and put a man on the moon can’t figure out how to defy and defeat this damned tax?
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Complain to the hard-working Commissioner who’s just trying to make a buck or two? Oh hell no… that’s like two wolves and a sheep discussing what’s for dinner.
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What are you gonna say to the Commish who you know didn’t dream this up all by himself, who only did what someone with a lot more muscle than you asked him nicely to do?
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No, the reg or the law is probably happening unless Someone Important realizes what it’ll do to Alaska’s real-estate industry which is the only thing propping up Alaska’s bloated city governments.
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So, it’s up to us to figure out how to dodge this bullet, how to make noncompliance work, how to make enforcement impractical and impossible. Not what we wanted to do with our time and energy, but there it is.
Must “register” your wood stove??
What kind of dystopian, Communist hellscape is Alaska creeping into??
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Just because the people in Europe are happy living under totalitarian rule, where every single, minute aspect of their day-to-day life is watched, controlled, “permitted” and regulated, (they have to register their frickin’ TVs and radios) does NOT mean that we in Alaska must live like them.
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It’s time for all Alaskans to rise up and make your voices heard.
This must not happen here. Are we not supposed to be the “Last Frontier” with rugged, capable, and most of all…..FREE people??
Pretty sure this is more of the BS that came out of the Obama healthcare initiative. Just like the woodstoves & LED bulbs
I’m all for protecting the consumer, especially in real estate transactions which are complicated and is something most people on do only a few times in their life. This is ridiculous. A proper home inspection will tell you the heat sources, what type of insulation is present, and any structural deficiencies. We don’t need “ratings” from dubious sources.
It seems like a solution to the Fairbanks area perceived air quality problems, which all revolve around the EPA’s sudden identification of PM2.5 being an existential threat to humanity. Prior to that, the whole state had to do IM inspections on automobiles, but due to a declaration by the EPA that air quality had improved because of all the newer vehicles with more excellent emission controls, they alleviated us all of that concern. Well they had to cast about for some monster to fight in order to justify their continued existence, and perhaps even grow the number of people under their employ.
Interestingly, the massive improvements to air quality in our communities since the almost entire cessation of the burning of coal on an individual basis has been cast aside and not mentioned nor celebrated. The fire seasons vary, but the adverse impacts to air quality that come from those all to common wildfires makes the issues created by stagnant winter air pale in comparison. Strangulating regulations from the EPA, and the State of Alaska in blind support of the EPA and this issue that was created out of some internal initiative on the part of a Regulatory Agency is shameful, to say the least.
Perhaps Emma can be of some assistance in this regard.
https://mustreadalaska.com/breaking-alaskan-emma-poken-joining-trump-administration-at-epa-post/
Bureaucrats constantly push the rest of us so they can perpetuate their useless existence. The DEC should be abolished. It was set up for one reason and has become the heel on the neck of free men, constantly making ever more oppressive rules to further enslave people that have worked to make lives for themselves.
Don’t see enforcement or compliance happening on Native lands which means a constitutional challenge from homeowners on non-Native lands.
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“register the device”? Not happening, Commissioner.
Just look at the energy rating as another government permission slip to sell your own home. And you thought we were a free people. Name three things you can do without paying a related tax, user fee, filing fee etc or without a bureaucrat-issued inspection, insurance requirement, permit or license. I’ll wait. Ha ha ha. “Free”.
Is the EPA the puppet master and ADEC the puppet?
Bingo. EPA has “Suggested” a couple new rules, which ADEC has created or dreamed up entirely new authority to implement. Pushback from the general public needs to focus on the specific authority they have, and what their actual jurisdiction is. An environmental attorney looking into it would do well to examine whether ADEC was granted any authority to reach into personal property of regular residents. I think they can regulate industry, and they can regulate vendors, but I question whether they have the authority to regulate citizens on private property. Let me give you an example: Can ADEC create a requirement that you record and report operating hours on your cabin’s backup generator? Why not? Also a good environmental attorney would do well to determine whether this proposal is the fulfillment of the decades-long efforts to find a way to regulate residential home heating devices as part of the PM-2.5 non-attainment area? Because if these regulations are precipitating from that, then the resolution does need to get politicized NOW. Legislators calling ADEC’s office, and Senators speaking to the EPA’s new Region 10 Administrator as well as the President or his cabinet.
Somewhat correct, in that the Army Corps of Engineers should have the first stake in clean up set up and stage the operations to meet the EPA and Army Corps of engineers requirements. What they do is give it all to the state DEC and they ed up; doing the work. EPA should be put out of business.
Need to repair that screen on the privy before the borough flies a drone in to check on things.
I have been helping a daughter look at prospective homes to buy. An energy rating is rare now, and may be another resource for a buyer, but personally, I’d rather see the ACTUAL heating and electric bills than a theoretical energy rating.
You’re going to have a hard time leaving any comment. I scrolled and scrolled and never got to any form to comment. Just hundreds of pages of “guvmint speak” rolled by.
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