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Suppose L is granting a lease of a small retail unit which T will fit out (the unit will have capped-off water, gas and electricity supplies that will be separately metered and which will not be shared with L). T will be installing its own heating and cooling, and the question then arises as to whether L needs to provide an Energy Performance Certificate?
The answer is that an EPC is required. Only premises without ‘fixed services’ are excluded (‘fixed services’ are the systems for heating, mechanical ventilation or air-conditioning which are attached to the fabric of the building). Here, the unit is to be let without fixed services but there is an intention that fixed services will be installed; in that case, an EPC has to be provided, based on the building’s Use Class (for EPC purposes, the activity within the building should be specified in line with business activity typical of the Use Class and the most energy intensive fit-out accepted in line with building regs in force when the building was built). This requirement applies irrespective of what T will actually install; the end result may be that L provides an EPC which will be out of date as soon as T actually installs the relevant fixed services. But, there is then no obligation on T to produce an up-to-date EPC based on what it actually installs, and the result is that the one produced by L could last for ten years (or until a subsequent transaction triggering the requirement for a new EPC). Source: Lovells (and see our entry on EPCs in this month’s Planning and Environment section). © Practical Lawyer
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January 2009 |
