Commercial EPC Surveys

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Under the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), it is now a legal requirement for all commercial property to have a Commercial Energy Performance Certificate(Commercial EPC) upon construction, or prior to sale or lease of the property.

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

Commercial Energy Performance Certificates are 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 a commercial 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)

A Commercial EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) is 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 Commercial EPC for existing tenancies. The Directive 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 a commercial EPC 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, with increased costs, delays in getting a property to market etc.

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

The survey is carried out (In England & Wales) to a 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 survey and 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
	The software compares the building to a benchmark property.
	Cost effective improvement recommendations are produced to suit the individual property

Only accredited commercial energy assessors can carry out the assessments and produce the Commercial EPC.

There are three levels of commercial property energy assessment:

Edgeworth Street Chartered Building Surveyors is ideally placed to conduct energy performance surveys and produce Commercial EPC's, as we already have the infrastructure in place to conduct such surveys across entire commercial property portfolios.

Our surveyors are now able to advise on the requirements of the EPBD and we are now taking instructions from clients regarding Commercial EPC's.

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.

Your commercial property 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 and the requirement for a Commercial EPC will affect you, please call David Carter or Robert Street on 0121 711 7110.

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