Landlord - EPC's (Energy Performance Certificates)
EPC's
Energy Performance Certificates. It provides an energy efficiency rating for a property, and also shows the environmental impact of the building, by indicating its carbon dioxide emissions. All tenants need to be provided with energy efficiency information at the time that they first view the property. The certificates can only be provided by trained Domestic energy surveier.
The energy survey needed to produce an EPC is performed by an assessor who visits the property, examines key items such as loft insulation, domestic boiler, hot water tank, radiators, windows for double glazing, and so on. He or she then inputs the observations into a software program which performs the calculation of energy efficiency. The program gives a single number for the rating of energy efficiency, and a recommended value of the potential for improvement. There are similar figures for environmental impact. A table of estimated energy bills per annum (and the potential for improvement) is also presented, but without any reference to householder bills. The householder will have to pay for the survey, which costs around £100 for a four bedroom house. The exercise is entirely non-invasive, so assessors make assumptions on the insulation properties of various elements of the property based on age and construction type. The assessor has the ability to over-ride these assumptions if visual or written evidence is provided to support the presence of insulation which may have been subsequently installed. |