# Commercial EPC when selling a property > Why a poor rating is priced into the offer rather than enforced, and what is worth doing before you market a commercial property. Source: https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/commercial-epc-when-selling --- # Commercial EPC when selling a property A sale is where a rating stops being a compliance question and becomes a price question. Nobody enforces anything against you at completion. What happens instead is that the buyer’s solicitor finds the certificate, the buyer’s valuer prices the work needed to make the building lettable, and the offer comes in lower by rather more than the work would have cost you. General guidance, not legal advice Energy performance rules for commercial property in England and Wales have changed repeatedly, and proposals have moved during consultation. This page describes the position as we understand it and is written to be useful rather than definitive. Check the current position and your own obligations with a solicitor or a qualified assessor before committing to capital spend. ## The discount is bigger than the fix A buyer pricing a compliance gap is not pricing your cheapest route to fixing it. They are pricing their risk: a cautious estimate of the works, plus a margin for what the survey might find, plus the cost of the time it takes, plus the uncertainty about where the standard goes next. That arithmetic is reliably worse than simply doing the work, and it is why improving a rating before marketing is usually a commercial decision rather than a compliance one. ## Who actually looks at it - The buyer’s solicitor, during due diligence, who will raise it as an enquiry. - The valuer, who considers lettability and the cost of achieving it. - The lender, increasingly, where energy performance affects what they will lend against. - The buyer’s own asset management team, who are modelling what they would have to spend after completion. Four parties, all of whom are incentivised to read the certificate pessimistically. None of them are incentivised to read it generously. ## What is worth doing before marketing Check what is actually on the register against the property, because an old certificate that predates improvements is working against you in public and costs very little to correct. Where the building is below or close to the minimum, get the cheap measures done and the building reassessed before it goes to market. Lighting is usually the fastest, and the programme is weeks rather than months. Where the gap is large, know the number yourself before a buyer tells you theirs. Having a costed, surveyed plan to hand changes the negotiation from an open-ended risk into a known figure. ## Tenanted sales are different again An investment sale is bought on the income and the security of it. A building let on a long lease with a poor rating carries a question about what happens at expiry, and the proposed EPC B from 2031 makes that question sharper the closer the date comes. A buyer with ten years of term left discounts differently from one with eighteen months. That is worth understanding before pricing the asset. ## Questions we get asked ### Do I need an EPC to sell a commercial property? ### Does a poor EPC reduce the sale price? ### Should I improve the rating before marketing? ### What if the building is let? Sources - The government has proposed that privately rented non-domestic buildings over 1,000 square metres in England and Wales reach EPC B from 2031, where cost effective. It is not yet law. [Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) in the non-domestic Private Rented Sector: interim response, DESNZ, 2026](https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/non-domestic-private-rented-sector-minimum-energy-efficiency-standards-epc-b-implementation/outcome/minimum-energy-efficiency-standards-mees-in-the-non-domestic-private-rented-sector-interim-response) - Under the MEES Regulations the minimum for non-domestic private rented property in England and Wales is EPC band E. [The Non-Domestic Private Rented Property Minimum Standard: guidance for landlords and enforcement authorities, under the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015, 2017](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-non-domestic-private-rented-property-minimum-standard-landlord-guidance) Last updated 8 October 2026 . - [Certificate validity Why the register may understate your building](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/how-long-does-a-commercial-epc-last) - [Lease renewal The other transaction trigger](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/epc-at-lease-renewal) - [Improving it first Usually cheaper than the discount](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/improve-commercial-epc-rating) Next step ## Find out where your buildings actually sit Before you plan against a deadline it helps to know the gap. Tell us the building and one commercial contractor comes back with what it would take to close it. Or call [07367 293494](tel:+447367293494). Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm.