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Commercial Buildings - Energy Performance Certificates

As from 6 April 2008 the requirement for an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is extended to commercial buildings over 500sq metres in size. Buildings under 500sq metres will be required to produce an EPC after 1 October 2008.

An EPC is required wherever a commercial building is sold or rented out. The certificate will be valid for ten years.

The certificates must be obtained:

• By the owner or landlord of a property if the property is being sold or leased;
• By the contractor if this is a new build or a refurbishment.

If Building Regulations apply then the local authority will not issue the Building Regulation Certificate until they have seen a valid EPC.
This could lead to some interesting contractual problems as far as contractors are concerned. If the contractor is responsible for obtaining a certificate and this would be necessary for works completing after 6 April 2008 has the cost been included in the contract price?; What if there is a delay in obtaining the EPC because no assessor was available in time to carry out the energy assessment? The costs of the EPC's cannot be passed onto the purchaser or tenant and therefore the specific cost of obtaining such a certificate cannot be passed down the line.

If there is a breach of these Regulations the enforcement officer can issue a penalty charge notice for which there are specific penalties dependent on the breach have been set out in the regulations.

There are various defences available under Section 42 in that if the person who should have obtained the certificate is able to demonstrate that;

• He had made a request for an EPC at least fourteen days before the relevant time and despite all reasonable efforts and enquiries by that person, he did not have in his possession or control a valid EPC;

• In the case of failure to make available a certificate to a prospective tenant;


• Because the prospective tenant was seeking to rent out the building due to an emergency which required the tenant's urgent relocation;
• At the relevant time the relevant person did not have in his possession or control a valid EPC;
• There was insufficient time in which the relevant person could have been expected to obtain a certificate before renting out to a prospective tenant;
• And that the tenant was given a valid EPC as soon as was reasonably practicable after renting out the building;

The costs of actually obtaining an EPC for a commercial property are quite likely to be based on the actual size of the building and whilst there is no fixed rate, estimates seem to indicate that several thousand pounds will be added to the cost of even a small office build.

Author / Commentator: Sarah Shemmings - Date: 01/03/2008

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