Compliance

Commercial EPC and MEES compliance

The obligation attaches to letting rather than to owning, which is why it surfaces at a lease event, a renewal or a sale rather than arriving as a letter. The current minimum is EPC band E, and the expected direction is EPC B from 2031.

A detail of a commercial building facade, showing cladding and glazing in grey overcast light. — Illustrative image generated with AI. Not a photograph of a building we have worked on.

Before a letting

A vacant unit

The cheapest version of the work, and the point a poor rating stops being theoretical.

What applies today

At the lease event

A renewal

Granting a new lease is both the trigger and the cheapest opportunity to discharge it.

Using the renewal

On the way out

A sale

Nobody enforces anything. The buyer prices the remedial cost in, usually generously.

What it costs you

When you cannot

An exemption

Registered, evidenced and time-limited. An unregistered exemption is not an exemption.

How they work

The rules, and the moments they bite

Eight pages covering what applies, when it applies, and what to do about it. The line under each is what that page covers and no other does.

8 entries

EPC B by 2031 Proposed, not law, and the detail has moved more than once. The threshold, the nations covered and the date have each moved during consultation, so the planning question is how many lease events fall before the deadline rather than how many years remain. Read MEES and the current minimum Already in force, and it bites when you let rather than when you own. The restriction attaches to the act of letting rather than to occupying, which is why it surfaces at a lease event or a sale rather than arriving as an enforcement letter. Read Exemptions Something you register and renew, not a state the building is in. An exemption is something the landlord registers against a property for a limited period and must then renew or replace, so it behaves like an administrative obligation with an expiry date rather than a permanent property characteristic. Read The assessment What you can evidence changes the rating, legitimately. The rating is modelled from data the assessor gathers on site, and where evidence is missing the software must assume a default, so producing the right paperwork changes the result without changing the building. Read Who can produce one The level required follows the services, not the floor area. The accreditation level an assessor needs is set by the complexity of the building services rather than the size of the building, so a small building with sophisticated plant can require a higher level than a large simple one. Read How long it lasts A valid certificate can still be the wrong one. A certificate stays valid while the building and the assessment methodology both change underneath it, so a still-valid certificate can understate a building badly enough to be worth replacing early. Read Selling a property The discount a buyer applies is bigger than the fix. At a sale the consequence of a poor rating arrives as a reduced offer from a buyer pricing in the remedial cost, which is a commercial outcome negotiated between the parties rather than anything a regulator does. Read Lease renewal The trigger and the cheapest opportunity arrive together. Granting a new lease is simultaneously the event that attaches the obligation and the cheapest moment to discharge it, so the trigger and the opportunity are the same occasion. Read

Next step

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