Energy Performance Certificates
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are needed whenever a property is:
built
sold
rented
You must order an EPC for potential buyers and tenants before you market your property to sell or rent. In Scotland, you must display the EPC somewhere in the property, eg in the meter cupboard or next to the boiler. An EPC contains:
information about a property’s energy use and typical energy costs
recommendations about how to reduce energy use and save money
An EPC gives a property an energy efficiency rating from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient) and is valid for 10 years.
Who is responsible for obtaining an EPC?
For buildings that are to be marketed for sale or rent, the building's owner or prospective landlord is reponsible for obtaining an EPC.
For newly constructed buildings it is the responsibility of the builder to provide an EPC to the person who commissioned the construction of the building, within five days of completion
For buildings that are to be marketed for sale or rent, the building's owner or prospective landlord is responsible for obtaining an EPC.
How can I find an energy assessor?
How much will an EPC cost?
The price of an energy performance certificate is determined by the market. Costs will vary according to the size, type and location of the property.
How long will it take to perform an energy assessment?
The time taken to perform an energy assessment will vary according to the size and nature of the property. This is particularly true of commercial buildings where the wide variations in size etc renders any definition of 'average time' not very meaningful. However, it has been estimated that an average three bedroom semi-detached house would take just under two hours to complete.
Will an energy assessor have to visit the property?
For existing domestic properties, the accredited energy assessor must base the assessment on a visit. Where an assessment is based on the assessment of another representative apartment or unit, the accredited energy assessor will need to visit a sample of the apartments or units to verify that they are indeed representative.
In other cases the assessor must visit the property if s/he has any concerns about the data and should expect to do so unless there is good reason not to. You may check your assessors credentials before letting them into your home.
What happens if my home gets a low rating?
This simply indicates the building could be more energy efficient. During the inspection a number of recommendations to improve its energy efficiency will be identified (in the recommendation report which should accompany the EPC). Implementation of these could not only increase your rating and reduce carbon emissions, but also save money on energy bills. However, it is up to you whether you implement the recommendations or not; the Regulations do not impose a legal duty on you to do so.
What are the benefits to me as a seller or landlord?
A higher energy rating should make a building more marketable than one with a lower rating as a more energy efficient building is less costly to run. The recommendation report should provide information that may help to reduce the running cost of the property even further.
As a seller or landlord do I need a new EPC every time I sell or rent to a prospective buyer or tenant?
No. An EPC is valid for 10 years and can be used multiple times during this period. The EPC will expire after 10 years and a new EPC (valid for the next 10 years) should be produced if the property is marketed for sale or rent at that time.
Is an EPC required where a tenant reassigns a lease to a third party?
Yes. It is the responsibility of the seller or landlord offering the accommodation for sale or let to make an EPC available for their building. A lease assignment would be considered to be a sale and the assignor should provide an EPC. The legal view is that it is the tenant, and not the landlord, who is selling their interest in the lease. The tenant effectively bought an interest in the lease when they took on the lease, and through the assignment, they are now selling their interest on.
When is an EPC not required?
You will not be required to produce an EPC if:
you are not selling or renting your property
you are selling your property and have reasonable grounds to believe that the buyer intends to demolish it on purchase.
Find an energy certificate
Use this service to find energy certificates and recommendation reports for properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This includes:
energy performance certificates (EPCs)
display energy certificates (DECs) for public buildings
air conditioning inspection certificates and reports
How to read an EPC | Energy Performance Certificate
A Domestic EPC and a Commercial EPC is a legal document, and once lodged on the Landmark Register is valid for 10 years (or until superseded). It is important that you learn how to read an EPC and fully understand it.
Date of Assessment: This must always correspond with the date on which the surveyor visited. Date of Certificate: The certificate date is generated automatically on the day on which the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is lodged. Reference Number: A unique reference number is allocated at the time the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is lodged on the National Data Base. Type of Assessment: This section indicates whether the certificate was created using full SAP or reduced SAP methodology. Total Floor Area: The internal floor area of the property is shown, based on the measurements taken by the assessor at the time of their visit
Top Actions to make your home more efficient This section seeks to point out the most effective measures which can be taken to improve the subject property.
Where a green tick is shown against an improvement this indicates it could be eligible for Green Deal finance because repayments are calculated as being no more than energy cost savings for that measure. Where an orange tick is present that measure may qualify for inclusion, but additional finance will be necessary as repayments are likely to exceed energy savings costs.
Lighting
The number of stars for lighting is based on a sliding scale of percentages of low energy fixed outlets present in the property.
Heating
Heating is rated according to the cost of a unit of heat supplied to the space. This means the unit cost of the fuel (expressed in pence/kWh) divided by the efficiency (expressed as a fraction) of the appliance. The unit costs are shown in SAP Table 12. Where a high and low rate applies, the unit is a weighting of the high and low rate prices according to the assumed number of kWh per year used at each price.
Water
Domestic hot water is handled similarly to space heating; the star rating is allocated once the unit price is referenced from SAP Table 12 and divided by a factor for the water heating efficiency.
At the foot of the dwelling’s features is information about primary energy use. Primary Energy use includes a factor which is the amount of energy used to produce one kilowatt of power for the household. The Primary Energy varies according to the fuel used in the dwelling for heating, hot water, pumps and lighting. Table 12 within the SAP 2012 document deals with fuel prices for the SAP rating but also includes the Primary Energy Factor per fuel which is multiplied by the amount of kilowatt hours the household uses to produce the figure for the EPC. It has no effect on the costs mentioned in the Estimated Energy Costs on the EPC. The actual SAP rating is based on that household’s assumed consumption. Alternative Measures
Measures which the householder may wish to also consider are listed separately. Detail is given at the foot of page 3 about where to find an online tool which illustrates how to save money on fuel bills, and for considering which measures to select for Green Deal finance.
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