E-first have alarmingly found that Estate agents are not aware of the new EPC legislation due to come into force on the 6th April 2012. In just under 3 months new legislation which applies to commercial EPC’s come into force requiring the agent to have all properties compliant before marketing.

Due to the silent approach by the DCLG on the change in legislation, non domestic energy assessors seem to be oblivious to the changes.

The long awaited regs, which are intended to improve the dismal levels of commercial EPC non-compliance, come into effect on 6 April, but the agents which we have spoken to recently were either unaware of them, or were taking no action to comply with them. In some cases agents are adding an estimated EPC to the particulars of a property without even visiting the site.

The regs will bring about the most far-reaching changes that most assessors will have ever seen on the commercial EPC side with domestic EPCs having followed the same route 2 years ago increasing compliance ten fold.

They give all commercial estate agents and other third parties such as solicitors a new legal liability if they fail to ensure that properties being marketed have EPCs.
Failure to comply with the regs could mean building owners or agents having to take properties off the market until EPCs can be obtained, and could result in property professionals facing fines and claims of professional negligence for failing to advise their clients of what needs to be done.

Agents should have known these regs were coming since January of last year, when EAM first broke the story that they were on the way.
After several delays, the new regs were actually passed in October 2011, but amazingly some agents are unaware of this and are still hoping that they will be delayed again.

One large agency in the Birmingham, which would prefer to remain nameless, told us they were marketing more than one hundred commercial properties – none of which have EPCs.

They said they hoped the regs might be delayed again, and they are waiting to see what happens in April.

We were told that several commercial assessors worked for that agency, including one in-house. All of those assessors should be aware of the new regs, but clearly they either do not know about them or have not advised the agency they work for.
Other agents we spoke to seemed to be unaware of the regs or their important new provisions, such as the requirement to attach a copy of the front of the EPC to all copies of property details.

The new regs have also scrapped a clause in the original regulations which led many commercial property owners to believe that they could put off getting an EPC until contracts were being exchanged.

Agents taking a ‘wait and see’ approach may come unstuck. DCLG minister Andrew Stunnel suggested last year that the ‘settling in’ period for the new requirements was the lead up to 6 April.

He told us in November: ‘The changes in April 2012 will now coincide with the introduction of the new improved EPC that will be aligned with the Green Deal.
‘The additional time will also give estate agents more time to gear themselves up for changes that will place additional requirements on that profession.’
Clearly some agents are not taking the opportunity to do that.