Our main office is located in Brentford, so we get plenty of requests for EPCs in the area. On this occasion the client was moving offices locally and needed the EPC turned around very quickly – in just a couple of days. Our normal turn around time is around 48 hours for a smaller commercial unit, so we were happy to try and expedite this somewhat and help our client avoid a nasty fine.

Turning around your EPC quickly

Like this customer, if you happen to need your EPC on a very quick turnaround, you just need to let us know when you book the appointment. We will do our very best to turn the report around as requested, but you should be aware that putting together the data from the survey and entering into the software can take some time. Whilst a small shop or single floor office might only take an hour or two to get into the software and generate the EPC, a larger commercial property can take several hours or even days to piece together, so please be patient and bear with us – we are aware you need the EPC and we will do our very best to get it back to you in time.

You can help expedite the process by prepaying for your EPC. Our normal procedure is to send the invoice for the service along with a draft of the EPC. This gives you the chance to check the details are correct before we issue the report on the register. If you prepay or pay straight away following the survey, we can issue the EPC to you immediately following the desktop work, allowing the swiftest possible receipt of your EPC.

EPCs in the Brentford Area

As we work so closely to you, we are happy to offer our Brentford based customers a 10% discount on our standard rates for commercial properties. Just ask us for the discount when you call us and provided you are in the local area we will be happy to deduct this off your final bill. We are always trying to give a hand to local businesses!

We have been asked to carry out EPCs on a number of care homes and sheltered housing accommodations. These kinds of EPCs can be quite time consuming, and there are obvious sensitivities around accessing the property and gathering our evidence.

How much do Care Home EPC’s cost

This can vary greatly, but because care homes have lots of units each with their own bathroom in many instances, this can really add to the work load. A 5-10 bed home is likely to be around £250-300, whilst a larger 25 bed home like this one was around £450. Because of how these properties are laid out, having a good quality floorplan is going to really help provide the quote and carry out the survey on the day with minimal fuss.

Do you need to see each room?

If there are particular rooms that are inaccessible on the day of the visit, don’t worry. Usually it is possible to work around this issue, especially if good floor plans are available. We ask that as much of the property as possible is made available to gather our evidence and that important areas such as the plant room, boiler, meters and loft are accessible.

What rating can I expect for my Care Home EPC?

The ratings on these properties do tend to depend on the heating system, as it is under a bigger load than in other types of property. That said, in a similar way to a residential EPC, if the property has been improved and has adequate insulation, a good heating system and efficient lighting, then you should get a decent rating on the EPC.

East London has plenty of commercial properties, many smaller retail units. This particular shop is a grocery store on Leytonstone High Road.

The store is really quite small, and only 2 zones were required to input the property into the software. This meant we could keep the cost low and the customer satisfied! The visit to Leyton took only around 15 minutes to take the necessary measurements and photographic evidence. The report was produce the next day to ensure a speedy turnaround.

Ratings on Convenience Stores

Unfortunately the energy rating on these kinds of stores is usually very low. They are situated in older properties and usually have no fixed heating or conditioning system. The old style T8 lighting doesn’t help either, as this will drag the rating down further.

G rated properties like this will have to be upgraded in the near future as new regulations come into force with regards the energy rating of rented properties. Properties like this one in Leyton are going to find it difficult to achieve a better rating, and as such we offer a bespoke service providing recommendations and pathways to get to the minimum rating requirements.

EPCs in Leyton

We have undertaken many EPCs in this area and are well versed with the locale. If you would like a quote for your premises, just drop us a line and we will be happy to help.

Being based in west London, we get a lot of requests for commercial EPCs in west London. Being near Heathrow, there are a lot of warehouses and warehouse businesses too. Some of these warehouses can be absolutely massive – our largest EPC on a warehouse was over 24,000 square feet!

EPCs on Warehouses

Warehouses usually consist of a large open area for the storage of goods, combined with a smaller office space for administration and the workers. Modern warehouse units can have some quite intricate conditioning systems, and separate metering for heating and lighting. In this particular example, we had to enter as much detail as possible to ensure the building met the minimum standards stipulated by the builders contract. The contractor employing us to carry out the EPC was very keen to ensure a B rating was achieved as it would impact on their contract if it was under this rating.

On paper, it should achieve a B rating, as it had been build exactly to the standard set out in the plans, and those plans were up to building regulations at the time. That said, an as built EPC requires lots of documentation to ensure that every energy efficient measure that has been installed is fairly reflected in the EPC. The client was extremely helpful in this case to provide detailed schematic drawings of the building, showing the insulation levels installed and the u-values that had been achieved. We then worked collaboratively to double check that everything that could be included was there. A detailed lighting design was provided too which enabled a highly accurate reproduction of the lighting in the EPC software. Being a warehouse with huge vehicle access doors, we were fortunate to have u and k values for the doors as well.

The end result was a B rating as required by the client. It took a little bit more time than the average EPC, because all of this data had to be very carefully added to the software, but it ensured that the client met their obligations and completed their contract.

Hounslow EPCs

Having completed several EPCs on warehouse just like this, many subject to first fit out and contract obligations, we can say that we are quite experienced at getting these kinds of jobs done and getting the right rating for the client. This isn’t a case of manipulating the EPC, it is completing the EPC very carefully to ensure that every possible improvement in the rating is considered. Clients on a project where the final rating is less important will likely not want to go to these lengths to ensure a higher rating and will just want the cheapest and easiest EPC carried out. This always results in a lower rating as many more default values have to be assumed where an EPC like this has specific values to be input.

We get many EPC requests all across the Greater London Area, and east London and the surrounding suburbs, like Ilford and Romford, are no exception. This particular EPC was on a warehouse business providing storage for office companies.

Warehouses – What makes a good rating?

Warehouses often require little or no heating, so the software used to create the EPC does not consider heating as important as other aspects of the construction. Things like lighting however, will be crucial. Well controlled and efficient lighting systems can cut bills considerable in a warehouse environment, and this is reflected in the EPC. There will also be consideration of the insulation that is present, with particular interest in the office areas of the warehouse, rather than the main storage areas, as these are heated to a much higher degree.

Carrying out an EPC on Warehouses

Warehouses are usually fairly simple to survey, as they are usually stand alone buildings with a very simple layout. One important thing to ensure for the assessor is that the warehouse is fully accessible, as often they are cluttered preventing the property from being fully assessed. Few warehouses actually have a floorplan, so access is extremely important on the day.

Because most warehouses are poorly insulated with older glazing, you need to be prepared for a fairly low rating on the final certificate. We are seeing a lot of these properties falling outside the minimum E requirement for leasing, so you may also benefit from a more detailed commercial energy recommendations report, which we can also produce for you following the survey. This is a more detailed analysis of how you can improve the rating of the property, not just a certificate with a number on it. We work with you to find the most cost effective and practical way to get the building up to scratch.

EPCs in Ilford

Ilford has a lot of retail units along with several industrial estates with retail and office units. We get a real mix of requests from this area – we have seen it all! if you have a property anywhere in the Greater London area, we can be there to help. Just give us a call or an email!

The client in this particular EPC required EPCs on all their housing stock in south London. This particular unit was based in Brixton and being run as a cake shop. Unfortunately there wasn’t much time to sample the wares during the survey!

EPC’s on small retail units

Certificates on these types of small units are relatively straight forward, and usually command a lower price than more complex properties. This particular shop was around 50 square meters, with a kitchen space in the back and service area at the front. The whole survey only took 20 minutes or so, even including measuring up the space. That meant that the client was able to get on with their usual routine without us getting in the way too much.

Ensure your meters are available to view

One problem we do come across especially on smaller retail EPCs is that the meter box is sometimes in an adjacent property or locked and not available to the staff on the day of the visit. Please ensure that the gas and electric meters are viewable as this is a required piece of evidence for the assessor.

Brixton EPCs – Parking in London!

Parking is an issue our assessors do have an issue with quite frequently. Please ensure that a parking permit is available, or that the building manager or staff are aware that our surveyor will need a safe place to park. We have had to leave appointments without finishing an EPC in the past purely because parking was not available. If we need to use a parking meter, then this cost will be passed on as an additional charge for the EPC. Fortunately for this EPC there was a parking space available on a side street, but it isn’t always the case.

Commercial EPCs are required on all properties being newly let or sold, and hotels are no exception. There are a few things that make hotels a bit different to surveying an office or a warehouse however.

Ensuring access to the property

Hotels are often full of guests! This particular hotel was no different and it was therefore tricky to organise access to enough of the bedrooms to be able to gather the required evidence for the EPC. Fortunately, there were enough vacant rooms to be able to get a good idea of the rooms in the hotel, and a good set of plans that we could work from to work out the dimensions of the occupied rooms. Plans are really crucial for this type of commercial EPC, so we really suggest these are made available prior to the visit.

Zoning a hotel for a commercial EPC

For those that have no understanding of how an EPC is put together – different areas of a building are ‘zoned’, and entered into the software separately. So a bedroom would be input as one zone, whilst a bathroom, reception area, or utility room would be input as another. Hotels have lots of separate bathroom and bedroom units that are often not able to be grouped together, and this can make them very time consuming and expensive to create an EPC for. Prices for larger hotels can often exceed the thousand pounds mark because of this, and it has been known to take 3 or 4 days to pull together all the data in the office following the site visit.

EPC Ratings for Hotels

This particular property had just been newly refurbished, and as a result achieved a reasonably high rating. Hotels with a good quality HVAC system and energy efficient and insulated hot water heating will benefit hugely in the final rating. Whilst lighting will also be important, considering many hotels are 24 hour buildings with the lights on all night and in high use. Intelligent lighting controls and photoelectric sensors are also a really good option for improving your rating.

This particular hotel had new windows fitted and refurbished bedrooms as well. A good time to get a new EPC on the property.

If you would like a quote for a hotel EPC, just give us a call and have the plans of the property handy to email us. We have carried out EPCs on several big hotels in London, so are used to dealing with this scale of job, but it is absolutely paramount that the customer is able to assist with access and documentation to ensure that the EPC process runs smoothly and that your property gets the rating it deserves.

This EPC carried out on a shell and core property in Lewisham looks like a dream job for an EPC assessor. It is completely empty awaiting a first fit out to be turned into retail units.

How do you carry out an EPC on an Empty Unit?

When carrying out an EPC on a unit that has never been fitted out – i.e. there is no air conditioning, fitted units or heating, and it has never been used before as a commercial space, we can do what is called a shell and core EPC. This means that various assumptions are made about how the unit will be fitted out. In this one for example, a reasonable air conditioning system which complies with current regulations, as well as appropriate lighting and water heating, must be assumed.

This is somewhat different to a typical EPC, where if something is not present, you must assume the worst case scenario. Here, because it is assumed that the property will be fitted out in accordance with regulations, a more pragmatic view can be taken. This means that the final EPC rating will be a lot better than you might think when looking at the photos. These units generally received C and B ratings, which is very reasonable for a retail unit. If these proeprties were already fitted out with older systems, then the rating would be much lower.

If you think your property qualifies as a first fit out, and you wish this to be reflected in your EPC, you should speak to us before or during the visit. You may need to provide some documentary evidence.

How to Price a Shell and Core EPC

Because there are many assumptions being made and a lot of justifications for the assessor to work out as part of this process, there is usually a slightly higher charge for a shell and core EPC. Each one is priced carefully depending on the details of the job in question. This particular unit had 4 separate EPCs required for various commercial spaces, and the cost was £550+VAT for the set.

EPCs in Lewisham

We get lots of requests for EPCs in the Lewisham area, particularly for shops, offices and take aways. If you have a property and need a quote, just give us a call and we will be happy to help.