Commercial EPC exemptions and the PRS register

An unregistered exemption is not an exemption

This is the single most important thing on this page. Believing you qualify is not the same as being exempt. The exemption has to be registered, with the evidence that supports it, before it has any effect.

A landlord who assumed they qualified, never registered, and then let the property is in exactly the same position as a landlord who never considered it at all. The assumption is common and the consequence is not theoretical.

The shape of the grounds

Without quoting durations or thresholds that need a solicitor to confirm, the grounds broadly cover a few recognisable situations:

• All the relevant improvements that could be made have been made, and the building still falls short.
• The improvements would not pay for themselves within a defined period, assessed on a prescribed basis rather than on your own view of value.
• A third party whose consent is required has refused it, or has attached conditions that are unreasonable. Tenants, lenders, superior landlords and planning authorities all appear here.
• The work would devalue the property by more than a specified proportion, confirmed by a suitably qualified independent adviser.
• The landlord has only recently become the landlord, which gives a short period of grace rather than a permanent position.

Each of those has conditions, evidence requirements and a duration attached. Those specifics are exactly what a solicitor is for, and we are not going to print numbers here that someone might rely on.

Evidence is the work

Registering an exemption is not a form you fill in with an opinion. It needs the supporting evidence: the assessment showing what was recommended, the quotations or the calculation showing the payback position, the written refusal of consent, or the independent advice on devaluation.

That evidence costs money and takes time to assemble, which is why it is worth comparing honestly against the cost of simply doing the work. In a building a band short, the lighting upgrade is frequently cheaper than the professional fees involved in proving you should not have to do it.

It expires, and the building does not improve itself

Exemptions run for a limited period and then fall away. At that point the obligation returns, and if nothing has changed about the building you are back where you started, with less time.

The useful way to treat a registered exemption is as a deferral that buys you a planned route to compliance, not as a resolution. Put the expiry in the same diary as the lease events.