Landlords and tenants

From 1 October 2008, if you are renting your property, you will need to provide an Energy Performance Certificate to any prospective tenant, or as part of the Home Information Pack. There is no need to obtain a Energy Performance Certificate  for an existing tenancy.

Validity

Currantly once the certificate is issued then it remains in force for 10 years provideing no alterations to the efficency of the property has been made, if this happens then a new certificate should be commissioned.

EU Directive

The EU Performance of Buildings Directive is now in force.   Its aim is to improve the energy performance of buildings by requiring energy performance to be advertised on the sale (from June 2007) or rental (from 2008).  This will be achieved by the introduction of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).  Each building will be issued with a certificate that will have to be made available when it is constructed, rented out or sold.  The certificate will make suggestions of cost effective actions to improve the energy performance of a property, but more importantly will allow prospective tenants to compare buildings on energy performance.  This is expected to become a greater deciding factor with the ongoing increases in fuel prices.

Click here for further information on the EU