EPBD Surveys

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Under the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), the government had originally proposed that from April 2008 all commercial property in the UK, over 500 sq metres in size will have to have an Energy Performance Certificate upon construction, or prior to sale or lease of the property.

In a posting on the Communities and Local Government web site in October 2007, the government has indicated that the April deadline will now apply only to commercial buidlings over 10,000 sq metres.

A deadline of July 1 2008 has also been set by which time all commercial buildings over 2500 sq metres have to provide the energy certificates, and on 1st October 2008, this will be extended to cover any property over 1,000 sq metres.

The certificate, similar to the ones that are required for certain residential properties from August 2007, will contain information on the property's energy efficiency and will provide advice on how to make the cost effective improvements to the building to make it more energy efficient.

Energy Performance Certificates will be required upon construction, sale or lease for all non-dwellings, covering everything from small retail units to offices, industrial units and large scale commercial premises such as airports and public buildings.

(Public buildings also require  Display Energy Certificates which we won't cover here).

There are exemptions to the requirement for an EPC however. These include:

	Places of Worship
	Temporary Buildings In Use For Less Than 2 Years (Site Buildings for example)
	Low Energy Demand Buildings (e.g. Barns)
	Stand Alone Buildings Less Than 50 sq m. (Sheds and Summer Houses)

Commercial property Energy Performance Certificates will be valid for 10 years and must be made available to a prospective purchaser or tenant at the earliest opportunity before entering a contract for sale or lease and no later than the release of marketing material or the request for a visit to the property.

There is no requirement for an Energy Performance Certificate for existing tenancies. The EPBD only affects newly built commercial properties and those being placed for sale or lease.

The EPBD affects landlords and property managers who will become repsonsible for ensuring that their property being offered for sale or lease has an Energy Performance Certificate available in good time.

Responsibility for enforcement in newly built properties will fall to Building Control, whilst Trading Standards departments will enforce certification of existing buildings.

The EPBD has potentially serious implications for commercial property landlords and property managers if they are to be able to successfully let or sell their properties.

That's where we can help, as, from April 2008, we are able to perform surveys and produce Energy Performance Certificates for portfolio owners and managers.

The survey is carried out (In England & Wales) to a new methodology called the Simplified Building Energy Method (SBEM) which is also used for part L of the Building Regulations.

Unlike the method used for domestic premises (SAP), there is no reduced data version for use on existing property and therefore, a full calculation must be carried out each time.

The basic outline of the methodology:

	The building must be zoned, meaning that a set of up-to-date plans is required
	Each zone is treated as a cube & a u value determined for each face
	All services must be determined - eg boiler type, output etc., and the runs of services around the building
	Software compares the building to a benchmark property.
	Cost effective improvement recommendations are produced to suit the individual property

Only accredited energy assessors can carry out the assessments and produce the Energy Performance Certificates.

It is likely that there will be three levels of assessor and for the most senior one, RICS has approached the government to run the approved scheme and to regulate members wishing to carry out assessments.

Edgeworth Street Chartered Building Surveyors is ideally placed to conduct energy performance surveys, as we already have the infrastructure in place to conduct such surveys across entire commercial property portfolios. Our surveyors will be fully trained and qualified by April 2008, when the new directive comes into force.

We are more than aware that time will be of the essence to commercial property landlords and property managers and have many years experience of meeting tight deadlines, for example, when the Control of Asbestos at Work regulations first came into effect in 2004, we carried out thousands of asbestos surveys throughout the entire UK.

In short, Edgeworth Street has all of the tools to ensure that your portfolio (whether one commercial property or several hundred) is surveyed correctly and most importantly, that any improvement recommendations are both commercially advantageous to you and of course, are cost effective and realistic.

Software alone cannot make suitable improvement recommendations - but a qualified sureyor can!

We have many years of experience in specifying improvements to commercial and industrial property and guarantee to provide sensible, objective advice with regard to the EPBD.

The EPBD has serious implications for landlords and now is the time to begin planning what you will do when they come into force in April 2008. Your voids will soon start to cost you money - not only with the EPBD but also the changes in legislation regarding Empty Property Rates.

Invitation to Commercial Property Landlords and Property Managers:

For free, friendly advice and a no-obligation discussion about how the new directive will affect you, please call David Carter or Robert Street on 0121 733 8686.

This call could save you vast amounts of money across your portfolio.