What is an EPC in Sussex?

All property that is marketed for sale or to let must carry a valid Energy Performance Certificate. The EPC contains information about a property’s energy use, typical energy costs and recommendations on how to reduce energy consumption.

Energy Performance Certificates are a legal requirement within the property building, letting and sales market. If you are building a property the EPC’s will be produced from the plans for the construction, if you are in the process of letting or selling an existing property you must have one to support the transaction.

The EPC survey we undertake will be a visual and non-intrusive examination of your property, this is the responsibility of the seller or landlord to arrange.

An EPC is valid for ten years, and although you may have one which is out of date, which is not illegal, you are unable to proceed with selling or letting.

Domestic Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

The domestic Energy Performance Certificate is a non-intrusive examination of your property. The Energy Assessor will take measurements of your property, normally internally, and support the evidence that he collects with photographic evidence. Considering that the assessment is non-intrusive, the assessor can only record what he can see, therefore if you have evidence of energy improvements that you have done, it is worth your while to offer receipts, and guarantees to confirm improvements done.

Normally the older the property, the lower the energy assessment is likely to be. The building regulations have changed as have government targets and energy initiatives. Heat efficient products have changed as new technologies have been developed, and the way that the Software that calculates the energy efficiency of the house also upgraded.

For these reasons, if you had an EPC completed on your property ten years ago, the passing of time may down-grade the result, and suggest newer technologies, to improve the homes energy performance.

The EPC does not consider the likes of lifestyle, or the people within the home, the main elements that it will consider are, age of property, level of insulation, ceilings, walls and floors, draught-proofing, plus heat-sources and the relevant controls to manage their output.

EPC's for New Builds East Sussex

Should you have a new build property, or you have redeveloped a building, the EPC that you will need, would be using a different method of assessing your property, not through a physical examination, but through details taken from the plans, during the build, which would be in keeping with the current building regulations. This type of assessment is known as a Standard Assessment Procedure or as an On Construction Certificate.

If you are a landlord, an EPC is a mandatory requirment, before you can let your property, and not forgetting that you may not be able to let your property if the EPC, shows that your property rating is too low. The ratings are from A [highest} to G{lowest], and if your score is F or lower, you may need to be making some energy efficiency improvements, before putting your property up for letting.

Non-domestic EPC Service

Non-Domestic EPC’s are also known as Commercial EPC’s, these also have the rating between A and G, A being the highest. The Commercial EPC is also valid for ten years and are needed for renting or selling a building.

They are not needed if the property is to be demolished, it is a temporary building, less than two years use, an entirely detached building with a total useful floor space of under 50 sq. metres, is not a place of Worship, or an Industrial workshop or non a residential building with a low energy demand.

The owner must provide the EPC to a prospective tenant or buyer no later than at the time of the actual viewing and included with any other written information. If you fail to make an EPC available to a prospective tenant or buyer, you may face a penalty. The penalty is at the rate of 12.5% of the value of the property, minimum of £500.00 and a maximum of £5,000.00.

Epc's

Floor Plans

The Floor Plan is a document that the estate agent, block management company, facilities management company or school will normally require for ease of orientation and safe management of staff and visitors.

Estate agents include floorplans with the selling particulars. It will show the layout of the home and commercial premises that they are marketing, and the relationship between various parts of the property, it will show door openings, window openings, the floor area and approximate measurements. As a perspective purchaser this source of information can be invaluable. Photographic evidence can be great, but sometimes not so easy to follow.

With an examination of the Floor Plan you may quickly identify if the property that you are interested in will be suitable for all the members of your family, with the varying needs of certain age groups, and room adjacency’s.

Once we have completed your floorplan, we can overlay any number of layers with useful information:

Floor Plans for Fire Escape routes and Fire Safety. Where are the fire extinguishers? Fire alarm cable routes schematics.
Asbestos information. Which areas have contamination?
Water ingress and dilapidations works. Which areas are to be stripped out?
Legionella issues? Where are the pipework locations or flow and return?
Unique room locations or unique identifiers.
Floor Plans for sale or lease of properties. Such as an estate agent or property broker.

A man in orange high vis drawing on floor plans

How to save energy in your home

If you do not have an EPC, Summit Environmental can complete an Energy Assessment, similar to an EPC, but not lodged onto the Governments National EPC Register. This will give you a current energy assessment, a starting point to understand what you will need to do to make your property more energy efficient, warmer, more comfortable and cheaper to live in.

If you own a property in England or Wales, you can get recommendations for home improvements that could make your property cheaper to heat and keep warm.

For each recommendation on your EPC you can see:

An estimated cost of making the improvement.
How much you could save on your bills.
Next steps if you want to make the improvement.

Here are some useful links to the current schemes which are available, schemes do come and go and so what is available now may change.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-boiler-upgrade-scheme

https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme

https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment

https://www.gov.uk/cold-weather-payment

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Other ways to save energy.

You can also:

Find energy grants for your home (Help to Heat)

Find energy grants for your home (Help to Heat) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

View immediate energy saving tips (Help for Households)

Energy saving tips to save money - Help for Households

Get help from your energy supplier: the Energy Company Obligation

Help from your energy supplier: the Energy Company Obligation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

How we can help with energy performance

Based on the information collated and assessed against the Governments standard criteria we will produce a EPC Rating for the building. The energy rating of a building is a complex calculation which is based on;

Construction of the building (including walls, roofs, floors and glazing)
Whether parts (zones) of the building are used for different purposes e.g. office, factory etc and the occupancy profile for each zone
Heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water systems
Lighting/Insulation

Once we have completed the EPC assessment, we can also recommend how to make your home more energy efficient; this will make your home warmer, more comfortable, the property cheaper to heat and may also increase your property value.

Contact us to schedule your EPC certificate in Sussex (East and West) today. Email our assessors on info@summitenvironmental.co.uk for your EPCs quote and to book a site visit.

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EPC in Sussex