Energy Performance Certificates

The legal requirement to have a Home Information Pack when marketing a property for sale, ended in May 2010.

What still remains however is the legal requirement to have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) when offering a property for sale or rent. For the purposes of selling a property the certificate is required to be less than 10 years old. When looking to market a property where no EPC exists, the marketing can begin at the point the certificate is ordered but must stop if the certificate has not been produced within 28 days.

If you use an existing EPC nearing the end of its legal life (for example, 9 years and 11 months old), it will remain valid for as long as your home is continuously marketed. But if you temporarily pull your home off the market for more than 28 days, you will need to replace it if it's more than 10 years old when you resume marketing.

The EPC will show how energy efficient your property is. It is shown on a scale of A being the most efficient to G being the least efficient.

The average property in England and Wales will be in Bands D-E. It will also give recommendations regarding how to improve your property's energy efficiency. This will help to save you money and help the environment.