EPC certificate when selling a home
What is an EPC certificate?
The EPC certificate is a document that indicates how energy-efficient your home is. EPC stands for Energy Performance Certificate. On this certificate, energy efficiency is expressed as an EPC rating. This number indicates how much energy your home consumes per square meter per year. A high EPC rating means that your home consumes a lot of energy, while energy-efficient homes have a low EPC rating.
You cannot issue an EPC certificate for your home yourself. This must be done by a certified energy specialist. He or she will inspect your home and assess all aspects related to energy consumption and insulation. These are the key factors considered when issuing an EPC certificate:
Insulating your walls, floors, and roofs
Glazing: single-pane, double-pane, or even high-efficiency glass
The condition of your water heater
The condition of your heating system
Presence of solar panels
The location of your home
Once all these aspects have been assessed, the specialist prepares a report. This is the official EPC certificate, which includes the EPC rating.
Why do you need an EPC certificate?
An EPC certificate is required if you want to sell your home. This is to ensure that potential buyers are fully informed about the home’s energy consumption. The presence or absence of energy-saving measures can influence the price buyers are willing to pay for a home. The EPC certificate is intended to promote transparency and encourage homeowners to make their properties as energy-efficient as possible.
Providing an EPC certificate is also mandatory for rentals. This applies to both residential homes and apartments as well as commercial leases. However, this requirement only applies if you intend to rent out your property for more than two months. By making the provision of an EPC certificate mandatory, tenants can better estimate the energy costs they can expect.
How long is the EPC certificate valid?
Normally, an EPC certificate is valid for ten years. So if you have an EPC certificate that is less than ten years old and you are planning to sell or rent out your property, you do not need to have a new certificate issued. This changes if you have had energy-saving work carried out in the recent past. These measures cause the EPC rating to change, meaning your old EPC certificate is no longer accurate. In that case, you’ll need to have a new certificate issued, even if your previous certificate is less than ten years old.
New legislation effective in 2022
Starting in 2022, there will be a change in the validity of your EPC certificate. In principle, an EPC certificate will still be valid for 10 years, but this applies only to newer certificates. In practice, this means that the EPC certificate must have been issued after January 1, 2019. In 2019, the rules and standards for the certificate were changed, creating a distinction between old and new EPC certificates. To address this, it has been decided that older certificates issued before 2019 are no longer valid.
These new regulations apply only if you wish to sell your home. If your EPC certificate is outdated, you must request a new assessment and have the certificate reissued. This new certificate is then valid for another ten years. Are you planning to rent out your property and do you have an outdated EPC certificate issued before 2019? In that case, you do not need to take any action. The new regulations apply only to sales and not to rentals. Of course, the certificate must be less than ten years old.
Don’t be misled by the expiration date listed on your current EPC certificate. This date was set before the new legislation took effect. Therefore, you must always have a new EPC certificate issued if you have an outdated one, even if the document states that it remains valid for a long time.