# Planning EPC upgrades across a property portfolio > Why a portfolio plan is a calendar rather than a specification, how lease events and budget years set the sequence, and what to do first. Source: https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/guides/portfolio-epc-planning --- # Planning EPC upgrades across a property portfolio For a single building the question is which measure. Across twenty buildings it is not, because the measures are broadly known and the thing you cannot change is when you are allowed to act in each one. A portfolio plan that starts from measures produces a wish list. One that starts from lease events produces a programme. ## Build the schedule before the specification The first deliverable is not a survey. It is a table: every property, its current rating, the date of the certificate, the lease expiry or break, whether the unit is let or vacant, and whether you can lawfully act in it today. That table answers the only questions that matter at portfolio level. Which buildings are a compliance risk? Which of those have an event coming that lets you act cheaply? Which have no event before the deadline, and therefore need a different plan entirely? ## Three groups fall out of it - Vacant or about to be vacant. Act now. This is the cheapest version of the work and a better rating helps the letting. - An event before the deadline. Plan the work into that event, and make sure the lease negotiation and the energy work are handled by people who are talking to each other. - No event before the deadline. The hard group. These need either work inside an occupied lease, negotiated with a tenant who has no obligation to agree, or an evidenced exemption, or a decision to sell. Most portfolios find the third group is small and expensive, and that discovering it early is the entire value of doing this exercise. ## Budget years are the other constraint The cheapest moment to do the work and the year the money is available are rarely the same. A programme that ignores that produces a plan nobody can fund and a lot of missed voids. Practically, that means smoothing the work across years rather than doing everything at the first opportunity, and having a small contingency for the void that arrives unannounced. A unit that falls vacant unexpectedly is an opportunity with a short shelf life. ## Standardise where you can, and only where you can Portfolios benefit from a standard specification: one approved fitting range, one control strategy, one contractor framework, consistent commissioning and documentation. It reduces cost per unit and makes the next building faster. The limit is that building types differ, and a standard written around offices will be wrong in a cold store and wrong again in a listed building. Standardise the process, the documentation and the procurement. Let the specification vary where the building genuinely demands it. ## Keep the evidence as you go Across a portfolio over several years, the thing that goes wrong is not the work. It is that nobody can later find what was installed where, which fitting type went into which unit, or what the rating was before and after. That matters at sale, at reassessment and at any exemption application. Deciding at the outset where the records live, and making it somebody’s job, costs nothing now and is close to unrecoverable later. ## Questions we get asked ### Where do we start with a portfolio? ### What about buildings with no lease event before the deadline? ### Should we use one specification across the portfolio? ### What gets forgotten on long programmes? Sources - 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) - 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) Last updated 8 October 2026 . - [Multi-let estates The same problem inside one estate](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/buildings/multi-let-industrial) - [Exemptions For the buildings with no route](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/epc-exemptions) - [Lease renewal The event the plan is built around](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/epc-at-lease-renewal) Next step ## Find out what your building actually needs Tell us the building type, the floor area and the rating you are on now. One commercial contractor comes back to you with a quote. No panel, no cold calls. Or call [07367 293494](tel:+447367293494). 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