What is the EPC?

The Energy Performance Certificate is a document which provides objective information to the buyer of a property about the energetic consumption of a building in order to compare with similar ones through a scale.

This performance is shown in an Energetic Label, which express this scale as an alphabetic range (from A to G) and a color code (from green to red) similar to the electric appliances ones. "A" is the highest performance and "G" the lowest.

A good result necessarily will improve the value of your property in a near future. However, it is not mandatory to achieve a certain letter to be able to sell or rent your house. No measures to improve the energetic performance will need to be undertaken, either, in case of getting a "low mark".

Why now?

Within the European Legal Frame (Directive 2002/91/CE and 2010/31/UE) regarding energetic performance of buildings, in Spain it is mandatory since June, the 1st, 2013 (Real Decreto 235/2013 de 5 de abril) to get a certificate of energetic performance for all the existing buildings, houses, flats or locals which are for sale or for rent.

What does it contain?

Apart from the Energetic Label (from A to G) the certificate will have to include:

  1. Building ID (address and catastro reference)
  2. Official method used to get the EPC.
  3. Energetic regulations which applied at the moment of construction.
  4. Description of thermal insulation characteristics of the building, installations, and other data used for calculations.
  5. Recommendations to improve the performance (to get a better result, from G to D, for instance).
  6. Description of tests and inspections undertaken by the technician.

Who has to order the EPC?

The owner of the building, house, flat or local will be responsible to provide the EPC to the new owner or tenant, so they will be the ones obliged to order an EPC to a proper technician. It will be compulsory for them to register the results at their regional government through an online procedure.

This registration will provide an energetic Label that will have to be included and shown in all the offers, contracts or advertisements to sell or rent the property and it will be submitted to the purchaser.

How long is it valid?

The EPC will be valid for 10 years. The renovation of it will have to be regulated by each Regional Government.