Do EPC Certificates Expire in England and Wales?

The short answer to the question ‘Do EPC certificates expire?’ is yes, they do. An EPC certificate in England and Wales is valid for ten years from the date it was issued. After this time, you need to have a new EPC certificate check performed by an accredited auditor, who will then be able to issue you with a new certificate that is valid for another ten years. However, there may be some circumstances in which it is a good idea to obtain a new certificate before the old one has expired:

• You Have Made Specific Energy Efficiency Improvements – If you make a special effort to improve the energy efficiency rating of your property, it makes sense to have a new inspection performed by a domestic energy assessor and a new certificate issued, especially if you are planning to let or sell your home in the near future.
• You’ve Built an Extension to Your Property – If you extend your property, you will need to obtain a new EPC certificate. This is because your existing certificate will no longer be valid as it will not reflect the actual energy efficiency of the newly extended property.
• You Have Modified Your Property So It Now Has a Different Number of Separate Areas – If you knock down any internal walls or add new partition walls so that the net result is more or less separate living spaces than before, you will need to obtain a new EPC before you can sell or let your property. This is because your existing certificate will reflect how energy efficient the property used to be, not how energy efficient it is now.
• You Have Added or Extended Fixed Services Such as Water or Electricity – If you add fixed services to a property or extend them to parts of a property where they were not previously present, you will need to obtain a new certificate that takes your recent modifications into account.
• You Want to Ensure Your Rating Has Not Slipped – Whilst there is no legal requirement to acquire a new certificate before the old one has expired, some property owners like to check every building in their portfolio more often than once every ten years, to ensure their energy efficiency standards are not slipping. If you let a number of commercial or residential properties and you are keen to minimise your business carbon footprint, you may wish to consider more frequent inspections too. If you discover that your ratings have slipped, you will have the opportunity of improving your property (or properties) at an earlier date than would otherwise have been the case.

If none of the above applies to you and you have an EPC for every property you own that was issued less than ten years’ ago, you don’t have to worry about applying for a new one at this moment in time.