Survey shows the EPC requirements are still largely ignored
Only 35% of commercial properties marketed for sale or lease have the legally required Energy Performance Certificate, according to energy-rating organisation Elmhurst Energy Services. The claim is based on a study to investigate non-domestic EPC compliance up to the end of August 2010 and compare the results to the previous study completed in December 2009, which showed 28% non-compliance.
Dr Gavin Dunn, operations director with Elmhurst Energy, comments, ‘While it was pleasing to note that the levels of non-compliance appears to have improved, there obviously remains continued confusion around when the EPC is required by both buildings owners and agents.’
He believes that marketing agents need to be provided with much clearer guidance on the EPC requirements so that they can better advise their clients. He also suggests that the responsibility for providing an EPC should be switched from the vendor to the marketing agent and that financial penalties must be imposed on owners and landlords failing to comply.
Dr Dunn concludes, ‘The fact that EPCs are not available to prospective building occupants undermines a key aspect of the UK’s energy-efficiency and climate-change policy and results in reduced demand for EPCs within the energy-rating industry.’
