An Energy Performance Certificate, often shortened to EPC, is a document you need whenever selling or renting a home or commercial premises in the UK. Each one lasts for ten years, but what happens when it expires? Do you need to get a new one? How do you find out if you have a valid, in date EPC? We answer these questions and more below.

How to Check For An EPC

An EPC lasts for ten years. This means that if you are selling or renting a home or commercial property and you've been asked to get an EPC, you may already have one. So how do you check?

The government hold a register of all the EPCs that have been completed. To find yours, you just need your postcode and the following link.

https://www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate

How Long Does an EPC Last?

Unless superseded by a new one, EPCs last for 10 years in the UK. You can renew sooner if you want to.

What Happens When My EPC Expires?

If your EPC has expired, you do not always need to get a new one. You only need an EPC if you are selling a property or signing a new tenancy.

This means if you have a tenanted property you're only obliged to get a new one if the tenants are changing in most cases.

There are a few exceptions. One of these exceptions surrounds the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) rules. If you have a tenancy for a domestic or commercial property that has an EPC rating of G or F, this cannot be let out. This applies to both new and existing tenancies. You need to perform energy upgrades to the property and get a new EPC sooner rather than later. MEES breaches come with hefty fines and the longer the property is breaching the rules, the higher this fine tends to be.

If you're a domestic property owner who resides in the home or a commercial property owner who uses the property as a your own place of business, you shouldn't need to renew an expired EPC unless you are planning to sell. That being said, we are seeing a trend of mortgage lenders requesting EPCs on refinancing applications.

Renew Your EPC

If you've worked out from the previous sections that you do in fact need to renew your EPC, the process is straightforward. For a Domestic EPC, you need a Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) for a Commercial EPC, you need a Non Domestic Energy Assessor (NDEA). We hold both of these qualifications, if you are in the North West, give us a call on 01925 699 321 and we'll arrange an assessment for you. To find your local DEA or NDEA, you can search the governments register of all qualified and accredited energy assessors.

Every assessor has their own pricing structure for EPCs. We charge a flat rate of only £60 for Domestic EPCs and our commercial assessments start from £150.

Summary

To conclude, in most cases you do not need to get a new EPC as soon as your old one expires if you are not planning to sell or sign a new tenancy in the near future. There are exceptions to this rule, for example, intricacies of the MEES rules. Each EPC lasts for ten years, to check if you have one check the government register of EPCs or Google search 'Find My EPC'. To get a new EPC contact the relevant energy assessor, either Domestic or Non Domestic. Call us on 01925 699 321 if you need a hand navigating these rules.