Residents urge Tumwater to require home energy audits at time of sale

Several residents and climate advocates used the City Council public-comment period to press Tumwater elected officials to place a draft ordinance on a coming agenda that would require a home energy audit at the point of listing for homes for sale. Speakers described the audit as low-cost for sellers but valuable for buyers and for reducing local greenhouse gas emissions.

The speakers said the proposed audit would be a short, inexpensive inspection that shows potential buyers a home's energy performance and gives sellers an incentive to make efficiency improvements before listing. "The $200 cost of a home energy audit is negligible when hundreds of thousands of dollars are changing hands during a home sale," said Charlotte Persons, a resident who identified herself to the council during public comment. "Home sellers can make wise updates before putting the home on the market. Home buyers can negotiate to have energy saving repairs or improvements as part [of] the transaction."

The request ties to a regional climate plan: speakers said the measure is one of the climate-mitigation actions in the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan adopted by jurisdictions in 2021. Lynn Fitzhugh, executive director of Restoring Earth Connection, told the council that housing accounts for a significant portion of the local greenhouse-gas footprint and that point-of-sale audits are an effective time to secure improvements. "It is 26% of our local greenhouse gas footprint," Fitzhugh said. "When a house sells, it is one of the easiest times for improvements to be made."

Several other residents backed the idea and asked the city to move quickly so all nearby jurisdictions would adopt the same rule and…