How to check the EPC register, and how to find an assessor

Before you pay for an EPC, check whether the property already has a valid one. Certificates last ten years and belong to the building rather than the owner, so a house sold or let in the last decade almost certainly has one on the register already. Looking is free and takes about a minute.

Checking the register

1. Go to the government's find-an-energy-certificate service. It is the official register for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland keeps a separate one.
2. Enter the postcode. You will get every address in it that has a certificate.
3. Pick your address. Flats are listed individually and converted houses are often split oddly, so check the flat number rather than the building.
4. Read the date it was lodged, not the date of the inspection. The ten years run from lodgement.
5. Download the certificate. It is a free PDF and it is the same document an agent would send you.

Commercial premises are on the same register under non-domestic certificates. See commercial EPCs for how those differ.

What to look at once you have found it

• The expiry date. Ten years from lodgement, to the day. An expired certificate cannot be used to market a sale or a let.
• Whether it still describes the building. An extension, new windows, a new boiler or a loft conversion since the assessment means the rating understates the property.
• The gap between current and potential. Two bands of headroom usually means the cheap measures have not been done.
• The features table. It tells you which element is dragging the score down.
• For a rental, whether the band is E or better. Below that it cannot lawfully be let without a registered exemption.

When the entry is missing or wrong

No certificate at all

Common for a house that has not changed hands since before 2008, and for some long-held rentals. You need one before marketing, so book an assessor.

The details are wrong

Certificates cannot be edited. If the floor area, room count or heating system is plainly wrong, the fix is a fresh assessment, which supersedes the old entry. If you believe the assessor made an error, the accreditation scheme named on the certificate operates a complaints process and can require the assessor to correct or re-lodge it.

You have done the works and the rating has not moved

The register does not know about your new boiler. The old rating stands until a new assessment is lodged, and a tenant, buyer or enforcement officer sees the old number. If you have spent money on improvements, a new certificate is how it counts. Keep the invoices: the assessor needs evidence for anything now hidden behind plaster or floorboards.

Finding an assessor

Only an accredited Domestic Energy Assessor can lodge a certificate. If you are searching for a domestic energy assessor near you, the same government service that lets you search the register also lists accredited assessors by postcode, which is more reliable than a directory. Locally, most independent assessors are accredited through Elmhurst Energy.

• Ask for the lodged, VAT-inclusive price. A £45 headline that becomes £65 with VAT and a lodgement fee is not cheaper than a £59 that is the whole price.
• Ask whether travel is extra. Rural Lincolnshire addresses are where this usually appears.
• Ask how quickly it is lodged. The visit is only half of it; the certificate is not usable until it is on the register.
• Check the accreditation. An assessment by an unaccredited person cannot be lodged and is worth nothing.
• Booking direct is usually cheaper than through a national panel or an estate agent, because both add a fee to the same local assessor's work.