Non-dwellings (Commercial)
Improving the energy efficiency of non-dwellings
From 1 October 2008 sellers and landlords will be required by law to provide an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for all buildings or parts of buildings when they are sold or rented.
The certificate will be phased in from April 6 2008 when buildings sold, rented or built with a total floor area of more than 10,000sq m will require one.
From 1 July 2008, this extends to buildings with a total floor area greater than 2,500 sq m. From 1 October 2008 all remaining commercial buildings will require an EPC on sale or rental or upon construction.
What does this mean in practice?
If you are offering any accommodation for sale or let (this includes sub-letting) you will need to make an EPC available that reflects the energy performance of the accommodation on offer. An EPC should be provided to a prospective buyer or tenant at the earliest opportunity and no later than when a viewing is conducted or when written information is provided about the building or in any event before entering into a contract to sell or let. As a seller or landlord you are responsible for ensuring there is an EPC available for the accommodation being sold or let even if an agent or another service organisation is acting on your behalf. You should therefore ensure any agents acting on your behalf are complying with the Regulations. When a building is constructed, it is the responsibility of the person carrying out the construction when the building is physically complete to give an EPC and recommendations report to the owner of the building and to notify Building Control that this has been done.
How long are EPCs valid for?
An EPC for a commercial building is valid for 10 years, or until a newer EPC is prepared. During this period the EPC may be made available to buyers or new tenants.
Are there any circumstances where I don’t need an EPC?
EPCs are not required before the construction of a building is completed. Nor are they required on the sale, rent or construction of:
- places of worship
- temporary buildings with a planned time of use less than 2 years;
- stand alone buildings with a total useful floor area of less than 50m2 that are not dwellings;
- industrial sites, workshops and non-residential agricultural buildings with low energy demand.
As the purpose of EPCs is to enable potential buyers or tenants to consider energy performance of a building as part of their investment, transactions which do not involve a new owner or tenant may not require an EPC. Examples might include:
- lease renewals or extensions to existing tenants
- compulsory purchase orders
- lease surrenders.
How do I get an Energy Performance Certificate?
By law, EPCs can only be produced by an accredited Energy Assessor. The accreditation schemes protect builders, owners, landlords and tenants by making sure Energy Assessors have the appropriate skills to carry out energy assessments, and that EPCs are always of the same high quality.
The energy assessor will need to understand the internal layout of the building, how it has been constructed, what it is designed to be used for, the services and lighting and controls used. This is to understand the energy demands of each individual space (zone) in accordance with its designed use.
This information is fed into a Government approved software package which will produce your EPC. At the same time recommendations will be produced by the software and reviewed by the assessor with their knowledge of your building to produce a recommendations report to accompany your certificate.
All EPCs must be registered and stored in the national register at www.ndEPCregister.com. with a unique reference number. This must be done by the Energy Assessor in conjunction with their accreditation scheme.
For further information please contact Richard Allen FRICS on 08451 302350 or rallen@cchi.co.uk
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