What is the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)?

The Enery Performance Certificate is regulated in the Royal Decree 235/2013, of 5th April, regarding the basic procedure for certifying the energy efficiency of buildings. This decree has origins in different European directives.

As a general rule, both landlords and sellers of a property (not land without construction), must provide a certificate that includes the relevant and objective information about the property (the construction / building), so that its energy efficiency can be assessed.

The certificate must be properly registered, and is usually obtained by an architect or other qualified professional.It can also provide useful information regarding what the energy consumption is of the property that we want to buy or rent, this is similar to knowing how much a fuel a motor car consumes, before deciding to buy it. So the economic efficiency of the property.

It can also provide interesting information about the elements (windows, roof, heating systems etc) that are less energy efficient in the construction, and therefore, if the property is going to be reformed, what areas need to be improved.

However, there are exemptions when the seller or landlord does not have to provide this certificate:

- In the case of buildings or parts of buildings with a total useful area of less than 50 m².

- In the case of buildings being purchased for major renovation or demolition.

- In the case of buildings which would be used for less than four months a year, etc.

The Energy Performance Certificate as stated in Article 11 of the Royal Decree is valid for ten years. Therefore, if you are going to buy or sell a property that already has a certificate of this kind from a previous sale transfer, provided that it is no more than 10 years old, it would not be necessary to get a new one.

This is a service here at Golf Sun we can provide, please contact us for prices and more information.