Happy New energy certificate requirements!

Bill Chandler warns that on 9 January 2013 the Display Energy Certificate (DEC) regime for public sector buildings was significantly extended, requiring many local authorities and other public bodies to obtain additional energy certificates for previously exempt buildings.

The hurriedly-introduced but hugely significant changes to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime also make important changes to the requirements for an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) when marketing a property and require private sector businesses to display an EPC on their commercial premises for the first time.

The Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 consolidate the several existing Regulations which have been implemented since 2007 to give effect to an EU Directive aimed at reducing the substantial carbon emissions emanating from buildings. The buildings in which we live and work account for nearly half of all carbon emissions, so improving the energy efficiency of buildings is key to achieving EU and UK climate change targets.

Significantly, the new Regulations introduce some important changes to reflect amendments made to the EU Directive on which they are based. The EU Directive was ‘recast’ back in May 2010, and at that time the Government consulted on how and when to implement its requirements. The new Directive was supposed to be implemented into national law by 9 July 2012 and take effect from 9 January 2013.

However, despite knowing for some considerable time that these changes had to be implemented (and with 9 January 2013 fast approaching), the Government laid the new Regulations before Parliament on 19 December 2012, but still to take effect on 9 January 2013. This did not give those affected, many of whom will have been on leave throughout the Christmas and New Year period, much time to digest and give effect to the new requirements.

So far as local authorities are concerned, the most significant change from 9 January 2013 is that the threshold above which public sector buildings frequently visited by the public must display a DEC has been halved from 1,000 square metres to 500 square metres. The only consolation is that DECs for buildings between 500 and 1,000 square metres are valid for ten years and do not need to be renewed annually. Advisory reports accompanying DECs for buildings between 500 and 1,000 square metres will also be valid for ten years, as opposed to their usual seven year lifespan.

The new Regulations also provide that the DEC threshold will be halved again to 250 square metres on 9 July 2015.

The guidance recommends that the DEC on display should be no smaller than A3 size, so that the public can view it easily.

Other significant changes introduced within the new Regulations include:

• When marketing a property for sale or letting (whether residential or commercial), it is no longer necessary to attach a copy of the full front page of the EPC to written particulars, but all written material (and all advertisements in the commercial media) must include the EPC asset rating where available and the guidance recommends that the full graph is included if space permits.
• A new exemption from the obligation to provide an EPC has also been created for “buildings and monuments officially protected as part of a designated environment or because of their special architectural or historical merit, in so far as compliance with certain minimum energy performance requirements would unacceptably alter their character or appearance”, although the full extent of this exemption is not entirely clear from either the Regulations or the guidance.
• Where an EPC exists for a commercial building larger than 500 square metres which is frequently visited by the public, the certificate must now be displayed in a prominent position clearly visible to members of the public who visit the building. This will particularly affect the retail and leisure sectors, although the accompanying Government guidance also refers to office blocks and factories as potentially being caught. Whilst unclear from the Regulations themselves, the guidance clarifies that the duty is on the occupier, ie the tenant rather than the owner where the premises have been rented out. This is the first time that private sector organisations have been required to display an energy certificate, but the Government has stopped short of its original proposal to simply extend the full DEC regime to commercial buildings.

Beware that the new Regulations contain no grace period, so if you need to obtain additional DECs, you need to take action now!

Bill Chandler is a Legal Director at Hill Dickinson LLP. He can be contacted on 0151 600 8725 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..