Many federal legislators never stop long enough to read the bills they are signing. This leads to unintended consequences. Take for instance the new home energy efficiency rules that were tucked inside the alternative energy spending bill. There is a clause in that bill that prevents homeowners from selling their property if they don’t have proper weather stripping and if their homes are not energy compliant. But if the homeowner cannot afford to upgrade, then they are not allowed to sell there home to the new buyer or the new buyer is not allowed to buy the home until things have been upgraded.
This obviously means there will be fewer home sales at a time when the real estate market is in the trash can, and it could lead to more foreclosures. It’s laws like this that don’t help anyone and while we may be helping ourselves to better efficiency in our energy usage, we are violating the personal property rights of the owners and getting in the way of the right of free contract which is guaranteed in the Constitution.
All too often the government gets in the way of private agreements and contracts in the free market, and each time they do their unintended consequences hurt the rights of citizens. Further, many homes were built, which are very old can never be fully energy compliant and therefore they will either have to be torn down or they cannot be sold.
What if the home is part of a probate proceeding and the property must be sold. What if the government ends up with a home due to property taxes not being paid? There are all sorts of ramifications of these laws and it just adds another layer of paperwork, and will cause further lawsuits in the future. Real estate laws are already complicated enough and personal property rights are something that we protect in the United States. Please consider all this.