PowerSwitch

I'm just trying to plough through the new cash cow for the Building Research Establishment, the founder of the now defunct Code for Sustainable Homes, the Housing Quality Mark, HQM and it's so complicated that it making me want to die!!

It is, as the name suggests, a way of rating new build houses with a number of stars from one to five and then numerical ratings in three different areas on top. Now one star is the bottom rating and five stars is the top, so if a 5 Star house is top quality could and should a 4 Star house be deemed second rate, a 3 Star house third rate, a 2 star house forth rate and a 1 star house 5th rate. I don't think that the house building companies will like it but perhaps we should complain to the Advertising Standards Authority about house builders advertising their houses a "Quality Homes" when they splash their advertising hoardings with that claim and the houses are only rated at 2 or 3 stars for the HQM.

Could we also complain to our local councils when they don't ask national builders for first quality five star houses houses and let them fob us off with third or fourth rate homes?

In Australia the rating is called NABERS.
No idea how good it is but I think 6 stars in good and 1 star is presumably a cowshed. Apparently you can build a 10 star house though if you really try hard at eliminating heat loss/gain.

I sympathise with your predicament but maybe you should just retire from all of this stuff and focus on preparation and farming, and personal enjoyment.