The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

Made: 10th April 2008

Coming into operation: 30th June 2008

The Department of Finance and Personnel, being a Department designated[^f00001] for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972[^f00002] in relation to measures relating to the energy performance of buildings and in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2(2) of the said Act, hereby makes the following Regulations.

PART 1 — INTRODUCTORY

Citation and commencement

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• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008.

• (2) Subject to regulation 4 and 6(1) and notwithstanding regulation A5 of the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000[^f00003], these Regulations apply to all buildings including buildings which would otherwise be exempt from building regulations by virtue of regulation A5.

• (3) Each provision of these Regulations referred to in column (2) of the Table in the Schedule shall come into operation on the date referred to in column (1) of that Table, for the purposes referred to in column (3).

Interpretation

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• (1) In these Regulations—

• “accreditation scheme” means a scheme approved by the Department in accordance with regulation 19;

• “advisory report” means a report issued by an energy assessor, after his energy assessment of the building, which contains recommendations for the cost-effective improvement of the energy performance of the building;

• “air-conditioning system” means a combination of all the components required to provide a form of air treatment in which the temperature is controlled or can be lowered, and includes systems which combine such air treatment with the control of ventilation, humidity and air cleanliness;

• “asset rating” means an energy performance indicator determined from the amount of energy estimated to meet the different needs associated with a standardised use of a building, calculated and expressed in accordance with the national calculation methodology;

• “authorised officer” means any person who is authorised by an enforcement authority in writing, either generally or specifically, to act in matters arising out of these Regulations;

• “building” means a roofed construction having walls, for which energy is used to condition the indoor climate, and a reference to a building includes a reference to a building unit;

• “building element” means a technical building system or a controlled fitting or a thermal element of the building envelope;

• “building envelope” means the integrated elements of a building which separate its interior from the outdoor environment;

• “building unit” means a section, floor or apartment within a building which is designed or altered to be used separately;

• “commercial media” means any material produced specific to a building, on any medium, with the intention of advertising the building for sale or rent;

• “controlled fitting” includes windows, doors, roof windows or roof lights;

• “Department” means the Department of Finance and Personnel;

• “display energy certificate” means a certificate that complies with regulation 12;

• “dwelling” means a building or part of a building occupied or intended to be occupied as a separate dwelling;

• “effective rated output” means the maximum calorific output (expressed in kilowatts) specified and guaranteed by the manufacturer of the system as being deliverable during continuous operation while complying with the useful efficiency indicated by the manufacturer;

• “energy assessor” means an individual who is a member of an accreditation scheme in accordance with regulation 19;

• “energy performance” in relation to a building means the calculated or measured amount of energy needed to meet the energy demand associated with a typical use of the building, which includes, inter alia, energy used for heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water and lighting;

• “energy performance certificate” means a certificate that complies with regulation 8 and includes a recommendation report ;

• “excluded building” means a building owned, occupied or used from time to time by or for the purposes of—national security;any of the armed forces;the Royal Family;a prison; ora young offenders institution;

• “inspection report” means a report issued by an energy assessor in accordance with regulation 16;

• “issued” means entered onto the relevant register of documents in accordance with regulation 25(2);

• “major renovation” means the renovation of a building where more than 25% of the surface of the building envelope undergoes renovation;

• “national calculation methodology” means—for the calculation and expression of asset ratings—in relation to dwellings at construction completion; the Government’s Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) for Energy Rating of Dwellings;in relation to dwellings on sale or rent; the Government’s Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) or Reduced Data SAP (RdSAP) for Energy Rating of Dwellings; andin relation to a building other than a dwelling;the Simplified Building Energy Model (SBEM); ora Dynamic Simulation Model (DSM); andfor the calculation and expression of operational ratings; the Government methodology for the production of Operational Ratings, Display Energy Certificates and Advisory Reports, that is implemented with Government approved software;

• “nominated date” means, in relation to a display energy certificate, a date not more than 3 months after the end of the period over which the operational rating is calculated, which is nominated by the energy assessor who issued the certificate;

• “operational rating” means an energy performance indicator determined from the amount of energy consumed during the occupation of a building over a period of 12 months (unless regulation 13(3) applies), ending not earlier than 3 months before the nominated date, and calculated and expressed in accordance with the national calculation methodology;

• “opt-out” means—the owner or occupier of a building to which a document relates has notified the keeper of the register that the data is not to be disclosed;the notice was given in writing, or by electronic communication sent to an address or location specified by the keeper of the register for the purpose of the receipt of such notices; andthe notice has not been withdrawn by the owner or occupier (by the means referred to in paragraph (b);

• “recommendation report” means a report included in the energy performance certificate and includes the measures set out in regulation 7;

• “relevant person” means—in relation to a building which is to be sold, the seller;in relation to a building which is to be rented out, the prospective landlord;in relation to a building in circumstances where regulation 6 applies, the person responsible for having the construction work carried out ; andin relation to an air-conditioning system, the person who has control of the operation of the system.

• “technical building system” means technical equipment for the heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water, lighting or for a combination thereof, of a building; ;

• thermal element” has the same meaning as in regulation 38 of the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012; and

• “total useful floor area” means the total area of all enclosed spaces measured to the inside face of the external walls, that is, the gross floor area, and in the case of sloping surfaces such as staircases, galleries, raked auditoria and tiered terraces shall be taken as their area on plan but shall exclude areas that are not enclosed such as open floors, covered ways and balconies.

• (2) Unless otherwise defined in these Regulations, terms used in these Regulations have the same meaning as in Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and the Council on the energy performance of buildings.

Prospective buyer or tenant

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A person becomes a prospective buyer or tenant in relation to a building when he—

• (a) requests any information about the building from the relevant person or his agent for the purposes of deciding whether to buy or rent the building;

• (b) makes a request to view the building for the purposes of deciding whether to buy or rent the building; or

• (c) makes an offer, whether oral or written, to buy or rent the building.

PART 2 — DUTIES TO PRODUCE ENERGY PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATES

Application of Part 2

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• (1) This Part does not apply to—

• (a) buildings used as places of worship and for religious activities;

• (b) temporary buildings with a... time of use of 2 years or less;

• (c) industrial sites, workshops and non-residential agricultural buildings with low energy demand; ...

• (d) stand-alone buildings with a total useful floor area of less than 50 m² that are not dwellings ; and

• (e) non-residential agricultural buildings which are in use by a sector covered by a national sectoral agreement on energy performance.

• (2) Nothing in this Part requires an energy performance certificate to be given or made available to an owner, a prospective buyer or tenant at any time before the construction of the building has been completed.

Energy performance certificates on sale and rent

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• (1) Subject to paragraph (4), this regulation applies where a building is to be sold or rented out.

• (1A) Before a building is made available for sale or rent, the relevant person shall ensure that an energy performance certificate is issued for the building.

• (2) The relevant person or a person acting on his behalf shall show, free of charge, a valid energy performance certificate to any prospective buyer or tenant when the prospective buyer or tenant first makes an enquiry about a building.

• (3) The relevant person shall ensure that a valid energy performance certificate has been given free of charge to the person who ultimately becomes the buyer or tenant.

• (4) This regulation does not apply in relation to a building that is to be sold or rented out where the relevant person can show that following the sale or rental, the building is to be demolished or subject to a major renovation or he believes on reasonable grounds that the prospective buyer or tenant of the building intends to demolish the building or undertake a major renovation of the building.

Energy performance certificates on construction

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• (1) This regulation applies to all buildings to which this part applies, including buildings in relation to which the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 do not apply, other than buildings which are exempt from those Regulations by virtue of regulation 4(2)(b) and (c) of those Regulations, where—

• (a) a building is constructed; ...

• (aa) a building has undergone a major renovation and was exempt under regulation 5(4); or

• (b) a building is so modified that the number of parts designed or altered for separate use is changed and where such modification includes the provision or extension of any fixed services for heating, hot water, air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation.

• (2) The relevant person shall give an energy performance certificate for the building to the owner of the building not more than five days after the work has been completed.

Recommendation reports

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• (1) A recommendation report shall include recommendations for the cost-effective improvement of the energy performance of the building, to include—

• (a) measures that could be carried out in connection with a major renovation of the building envelope or technical building systems; and

• (b) measures for individual building elements that could be carried out independent of a major renovation of the building envelope or technical building systems.

• (2) Any cost-effective measure which the energy assessor recommends must be technically feasible for the building to which the recommendation report relates.

Energy performance certificates

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• (1) An energy performance certificate shall—

• (a) be in a form approved by the Department;

• (b) show the asset rating of the building;

• (c) include reference values such as current legal standards or other benchmarks in order to make it possible to compare and assess the energy performance of the building ;

• (d) be issued by an energy assessor who is accredited to produce energy performance certificates for that category of building; and

• (e) include the following information—

• (i) the reference number under which the certificate has been registered in accordance with regulation 25;

• (ii) the address of the building;

• (iii) the total useful floor area of the building;

• (iv) the name of the energy assessor who issued it;

• (v) the name and address of the energy assessor’s employer, or if he is self-employed, the name under which he trades and his address;

• (vi) the date on which it was issued; and

• (vii) the name of the approved accreditation scheme of which the energy assessor is a member.

• (2) An energy performance certificate shall not contain any information or data except for the address of the building from which a living individual (other than the energy assessor or his employer) can be identified.

• (3) An energy performance certificate is only valid for the purposes of this Part if—

• (a) the issue date is not more than 10 years old; and

• (b) no other energy performance certificate for the building has since been obtained by or provided to the relevant person.

• (4) Certificates for apartments or units designed or altered for separate use in blocks may be based—

• (a) on the assessment of another representative apartment or unit in the same block; or

• (b) except in the case of a dwelling, on a common certification of the whole building for blocks with a common heating system.

• (5) Where—

• (a) a block with a common heating system is divided into parts designed or altered for separate use; and

• (b) one or more, but not all, of the parts are dwellings,

certification for those parts that are not dwellings may be based on a common certification of all the parts that are not dwellings.

• (6) Certificates for single-family houses may be based on the assessment of another representative building of similar design and size with a similar actual energy performance quality if such correspondence can be guaranteed by the energy assessor issuing the energy performance certificate.

Production of copies of energy performance certificates

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Where this Part requires a relevant person to give or show a valid energy performance certificate it is sufficient for the relevant person to—

• (a) give or show a copy of a valid certificate; or

• (b) with the consent of the intended recipient, give or show electronically a read-only certificate.

Purposes for which certificates and recommendation reports may be disclosed

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• (1) Where any person has in his possession or control a document to which this regulation applies, it is an offence for that person to disclose, or permit the disclosure of, the document or any information derived from it except in the circumstances specified in paragraph (2).

• (2) Those circumstances are—

• (a) where the disclosure is necessary to comply with any duty imposed by these Regulations;

• (b) where the disclosure is authorised by Part 6;

• (c) where the disclosure is by or to an enforcement authority for a purpose legitimately connected to their duty under regulation 31(2);

• (d) where the disclosure is for a legitimate purpose connected with a prospective buyer’s or tenant’s decision whether to buy or rent the building;

• (e) where the disclosure is for a legitimate purpose related to the making of improvements to the energy efficiency of the building;

• (f) where the disclosure is by or to an accreditation scheme operator for a purpose legitimately connected to its accreditation functions;

• (g) where the disclosure is by the Department for—

• (i) the purpose of enabling it to monitor the application and enforcement of, and compliance with, the duties imposed by these Regulations; or

• (ii) statistical or research purposes,

provided that no particular property is identifiable from the information disclosed; or

• (h) where the disclosure is for the purpose of—

• (i) preventing or detecting crime;

• (ii) apprehending or prosecuting offenders;

• (iii) establishing, exercising or defending legal rights; ...

• (iv) complying with an order of a court ; or

• (v) providing any document or data to an accredited energy assessor solely where he has been engaged by a relevant person for a purpose legitimately connected with the assessment of the energy performance of a building.

• (3) Paragraph (1) does not apply to any disclosure of a document or any information derived from it by any person who, at the time of the disclosure, is, or is acting on behalf of, an owner or tenant of the building to which the document relates.

• (4) This regulation applies to the following documents—

• (a) an energy performance certificate or a copy of such a certificate; and

• (b) a recommendation report or a copy of such a report,

and any data collected by an energy assessor for the purposes of preparing these documents shall be treated as part of these documents for the purposes of this regulation.

• (5) A person guilty of an offence under this regulation is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

PART 3 — DISPLAY ENERGY CERTIFICATES

Duties relating to display energy certificates and advisory reports

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• (1) This regulation applies from the specified date to buildings occupied by public authorities and frequently visited by the public.

• (2) In this regulation the specified date is—

• (a) for buildings with a total useful floor area over 500m², 18th February 2013; and

• (b) for buildings with a total useful floor area over 250m², 9th July 2015.

• (3) The occupier of any building to which this regulation applies shall—