When you sell your property you still need an Energy Performance Certificate!
This applies to us all if we are hoping to sell our property and to those of you who are Landlords offering a property for rent.
The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a European Union (EU) initiative as part of the drive to improve energy efficiency across the EU member countries. The certificate will provide two key pieces of information:-
1. The energy efficiency of your property
2. The environmental impact of the property
Once you receive your Certificate you will see that it provides a rating of your property’s energy efficiency and shows this by way of a graph. They have been around since 2005 and apply to all buildings in the UK that are constructed, sold or offered for rent.
An EPC is required whenever a property is marketed and is valid for 10 years. The Energy assessor will need to determine the property type, age of property, dimensions, room and water heating systems, insulation levels, type of construction, windows and glazing types and the types of lighting. This information will be entered into the calculation software and an EPC will be produced.
The agents or your lawyers can arrange for this inspection to be carried out fairly quickly and at a cost of about £60. The EPC can only be provided by a Domestic Energy Assessor or a Home Inspector who is a member of an approved Government accreditation Scheme.
The Inspector will, of course, need to visit your property to see what energy related features there are and then he/she will enter those into a computer program which has a calculation model developed by the government.
The ratings come on a scale of A – G with A being the one you want as this is the best rating. Any potential purchaser can compare the energy efficiency of different properties in a similar way to comparing the energy performance of your fridge or freezer.
The Certificate can be useful as it will include recommendations of potential improvements that can be made to your property in order to cut bills for fuel and improve energy efficiency.
There are 4 sections to the EPC
- 1. Recommendations for improving the energy efficiency
- 2. A summary of energy performance features such as roof, floor and wall construction types, windows and glazing, heating systems, water heating and low energy lighting.
- 3. Estimate energy use based on standard occupancy assumptions
- 4. The performance and environmental impact of the property in terms of energy used per square meter of floor area, the energy efficiency based on fuel costs and the environmental impact based on CO2 emissions.
The table shows how each of the different elements of the property are performing. The certificate will show the existing energy performance of the property and the potential rating if the suggested improvements are made.
Some of the descriptions could be a cause for concern if for instance the hot water system has been given a “poor” rating. This could just be down to the comparison of cost between gas and electricity. This does not, of course, mean that the system is of poor quality!
Angela Massey F Inst L Ex
angela.massey@rowberrymorris.co.uk
0118 9516619
