The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) changes finally took effect on 1st October 2008, whereby the energy performance certificate rules which are relevant to domestic property owners, occupiers and agents, non-domestic property owners, managers and agents, prospective purchasers and tenants, and the building, heating and air-conditioning industries in England and Wales became law.

The home EPC forms part of the Home Information Pack (HIP). Therefore, the EPCs in the HIP are now valid for a period of three years and not 12 months as it was previously.

The changes will make EPCs Mandatory for:

Homes – which include those domestic properties on the market before the phased introduction of EPCs began in 2007.

Commercial buildings – including the ones already placed on the market. If you sell or rent a property during the transition period, you are obliged to purchase an EPC as soon as is practically possible.

Public buildings’ – Any property on or above a 1,000 square metres will be required to exhibit the energy certificates to include the air-conditioning systems.

The disclosure of information from the EPC registers

The EPC registers will be extended to allow access to the Energy Saving Trust, so that the Green Homes Service energy assessors will be permitted to access the names, addresses and energy ratings of a non-domestic building as to whether they have generated an EPC for that property.

The new rules will also unify and simplify the arrangements of gathered information for calculating as-built CO2 emission rates for an ‘On Construction’ build when giving a building control body the asset rating for a new building.