Whatever your business, if you manage a commercial property with over fifty square meters of floor space, you require an up to date energy performance certificate. Government legislation has made it completely inescapable as a business, and failing to meet these requirements can result in massive fines of thousands of pounds, which can be entirely crippling for smaller businesses. Making sure your business is energy efficient is hugely important too.
With climate change all too obvious around us, knowing your business is doing its part, and is fully aware of its own energy efficiency and CO2 emissions is useful and necessary. As a commercial property owner, it can have its own host of benefits, making sure your property has a good EPC grade, with the more efficient, and therefore cheaper to run, properties being much more attractive for rental and sale.
What is an Energy Performance Certificate?
Energy performance certificates are documents that detail the energy efficiency and CO2 emissions of a property or building. All homeowners, landlords and property owners in the UK are required by law to have an up to date energy performance certificate, as of August 1st 2007. Initially part of the HIP (home information packs), this was discontinued, but the EPC continued to be mandatory for homes and commercial properties all over the UK.
An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is essentially a study of your properties energy efficiency, and CO2 emissions. It details aspects of your properties energy efficiency, highlighting shortcomings, and grading the building from ‘A’, the best, to ‘G’, the worst. The average property coming in at roughly ‘C’ or ‘D’. Energy performance certificates take into account various elements of the property, including improvements like low energy lighting, solar power, various forms of insulation and modern heating systems. The grading given in an EPC can affect the rental and resale value of a property, which can be especially important for commercial properties all over the UK.
Why Your Business Needs One
If you’re a landlord or manage a commercial property with over 50m2 of floor space, then you legally need a current EPC. Energy performance certificate grades can determine a properties rental and resale value and attractiveness, as well as there being fines and penalties for property owners caught without one. Commercial properties require EPC’s by law, as of August 2007, and without one, your business is subject to massive fines and penalties.
An EPC certificate is valid for ten years, after which you need a new one. If you’re selling or renting the property, you need to perform an EPC survey, with penalties and fines of £200 for those who fail to do this. In order to avoid hefty fines and hassle, you need to make absolutely sure your home, rental let, or commercial property has an up to date EPC. It’s not that much hassle or cost to sort out, so save yourself a whole bundle of trouble and hassle, and get a company in.
Outsource Your EPC Survey Needs
Okay, so getting an EPC survey is an absolute necessity, sadly, there’s no way of getting around this. But it doesn’t have to be a hassle, you just need to find the right company to carry out the EPC survey. With the mass of reviews out there online nowadays, as well as such a great array of different companies available online, this shouldn’t be any trouble. Make sure you read several reviews, and find a fully accredited company, with reasonable prices. Like anything, don’t go too cheap, but the prices shouldn’t be astronomical. With so many firms offering both commercial and domestic EPC surveys out there, you shouldn’t have much trouble finding the right one for your business.
All you have to do now is make contact with the right company, and discuss the size of your commercial property and book an EPC survey. They’ll send in a specialist who’ll examine your entire property, taking note of key features like low energy lighting, wall cavity insulation, loft space insulation, modern heating systems, such as solar, and roof solar panelling. These affect your overall grading, energy efficiency and CO2 emissions, which in turn generates your EPC grading.
Despite the formality and necessity of the procedure, it’s all relatively quick, stress and hassle free, and is completely non-invasive. There’s no drilling or anything like that, you don’t need to worry about your property being at all damaged or tampered with. It’s all done externally, with no need for damaging any part of your building.
