EPC facts and what you need to know
An EPC is an Energy Performance Certificate. This is a legal document required for a number of different property transactions. For instance, an EPC is required for all property sales (there are some exceptions which are covered elsewhere in the FAQs) and your solicitor will not be able to complete on your sale or purchase without one.
An EPC is also required for rental properties where landlords have a legal obligation to have one in place for any property they rent out to comply with the governments latest Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES), a rental property must be a band ‘E’ or above in order to be rented out.
Properties which fall under this will in most cases require remedial works to be undertaken to bring them up to the required standard. There is further information on MEES and some exemptions later on in the FAQs.
EPCs are also required to apply for things such as the Renewable Heat Incentive for properties which have had renewable technologies installed and also most mortgage companies will request an EPC for re-mortgage purposes. We’ve also got a blog article here on the EPC which covers some issues in more detail.
The EPC rates a property on a banded scale of ‘A’-’G’ with a band ‘A’ property being the most efficient and ‘G’ the poorest. Most properties in the UK however sit firmly in the middle of these bands with the UK average being around a band ‘D’ 60 out of 100. Many individual things go into making the final rating but the main things that the EPC is looking for in order to get you the highest rating possible are insulated walls, a modern efficient condensing boiler, good levels of loft insulation and a good range of heating controls.
The EPC is very heavily weighted still towards properties heated by mains gas which has traditionally been one of the cheapest ways to heat both the space and water of a property but things will invariably change as we move away from fossil fuels to more environmentally sustainable solutions. This can often surprise people who are for instance deciding to switch from a mains gas boiler to a renewable technology such as an air source heat pump and expect to see the EPC rating improve but surprisingly this isn’t always the case
In fact it’s not unusual to see the final rating remain the same or actually reduce slightly which can at first seem alarming to homeowners who are spending many thousands of pounds on their heat pump and are expecting to see their EPC rating go through the roof but this just isn’t the case for many people at present.
The reason as i’ve mentioned above is that the current algorithm with the EPC software is still weighted against systems run by electricity which are still on the whole more expressive to run than their mains gas counterparts and electrically heated water has historically been expensive.
Contact us.
NN Home Energy Surveys
12 Battle Close, Wootton
Northampton, NN4 6RP
Opening hours: Monday - Saturday
8am - 8pm / Sat 9am - 5pm
Tel: 07851 957628
Email: david@nnhes.co.uk