From December 14th 2007, UK Government decreed that all residential homes marketed for sale in England and Wales, must have - as part of the Home Information Pack (HIP) - an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which rates both the energy efficiency and environmental impact (C02 emissions) of your home to home buyers.

For Northern Ireland, an Energy Performance Certificate is required from 30th June 2008, but only as a standalone document - a Home Information Pack is not a requirement.
Need an EPC?

Locate Energy Assessor

In Scotland, Energy Performance Certificates come into effect from 1st December 2008 as part of the Home Pack, or Home Report.

Energy-Performance-Certificates.org (this site) aims to guide and inform, as well as to hopefully offer some self-help tips you can utilise to maximise the energy rating of your home and, well, save you money!

JJD Property Developments by law must have available an Energy Performance Certificate

  • when the property is viewed;
  • when written information is provided on request;
  • before contracts are exchanged.

Sales Particulars

As a minimum, the asset ratings graphs from your EPC must be included within the sales particulars (including electronic) if they contain two or more of the following:

  • A photograph of the building or any room inside the building
  • A floor plan of the building
  • A description of the size of the rooms in the building.

Advertising

With window cards and newspaper adverts you are not legally obliged to include the rating graphs, although the Government suggests it would be good practice to do so if they contain any two of the above items.

Commissioned

By 'commissioned', the Government means all documents - including the EPC - within your HIP must have been ordered with a committment to pay.

There should also be an expectation that all documents will be made available within 28 days. If they are not (unlikely in most cases), the person responsible for marketing your home must make reasonable efforts to obtain them as soon as possible, or risk pain of penalty (see below).