EPC4 Commerce appreciates that one of the most valuable services we can offer is to keep you informed of developments regarding legislation.

PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE
ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS (CERTIFICATES AND INSPECTIONS) (ENGLAND AND WALES) REGULATIONS 2007 (THE EPB
REGULATIONS)

April
2011 - current Summary of the changes to the EPB Regulations .The changes to the EPB Regulations can be summarised as follows:

The changes will extend the current requirements to commission an EPC that
apply to residential buildings to all buildings sold or rented out;

The requirements for the provision of an EPC with written particulars are
extended to all buildings sold or rented out and the option to attach the asset
rating is removed;

The regime for lodgment of EPCs and DECs on the Register is extended to air
conditioning inspection reports.

The following summary details the main changes made in relation to EPCs.

Trading Standards Officers (TSO's) currently
have the power to require the ’relevant person’ (i.e. the seller or landlord)
to produce copies of the EPC for inspection and to take copies if necessary.
The power to require the production of documents will be extended to include
persons acting on behalf of the seller or landlord – e.g. estate agents and
letting agents. This means, for example, that TSOs will be authorised to
require estate agents to produce evidence showing that an EPC has been
commissioned where they are marketing a building without one.

Latest news

From
April 2012 any Agents selling or marketing commercial properties will be
required to display the energy rating on any literature relating to the relevant
property. This now means that the EPC has to be carried out before a property
is marketed for sale or rent. Due to this change a fine/prosecution can be
imposed on Agents not complying by Trading Standard Officers.

2. Commissioning an EPC before marketing a property, a number of changes are made to regulation 5A of the EPB regulations. In general, the onus remains on the ‘relevant person’ (i.e. the seller or landlord) to commission an EPC before marketing. The main changes are as follows:

• The duty to commission an EPC before marketing is extended to the
sale and rent of residential and non-residential buildings;

• The current 28 day period within which an EPC is to be secured using ‘reasonable efforts’ is being reduced to 7 days; If after that 7 day period the EPC has not been secured the relevant person has a further 21 days to do so.

3. Power to Require the production of documents the Trading Standard Officers currently have the power to require the ’relevant person’ (i.e. the seller or landlord) to produce copies of the EPC for inspection and to take copies if necessary. The power to require the production of documents will be extended to include persons acting on behalf of the seller or landlord – e.g. estate agents and letting agents. This means, for example, that TSOs will be authorised to require estate agents to
produce evidence showing that an EPC has been commissioned where they are
marketing a building without one.

4 Clarifying when an EPC is required. This technical amendment to Regulation 5 is intended to remove the erroneous belief that the provision of the EPC can be delayed until shortly before the parties enter into a contract for sale or rent. This will be achieved by deleting the words “before entering into a contract to sell or rent the building or, if sooner” in Regulation 5(2)(b) of the EPB Regulations.

5. Consequential changes. A number of consequential changes have been made to enable TSOs to enforce the new duties.