Energy Audits near you

GOV.UK states the position simply: you must have an EPC when you are selling a property, renting out a property or building a new property. The certificate gives a property an energy efficiency rating from A, the best, to G, the worst, and is valid for ten years. You pay for it from an accredited assessor, found through the government's find-an-accredited-assessor service, and you can be fined if you do not get one when you need one. Existing certificates can be looked up on the find an energy certificate service.

The person matters as much as the document. An assessment for a home must be carried out by an accredited domestic energy assessor who is part of an accredited scheme, and the assessor's contact details appear on the certificate itself. The cost varies by assessor and by the size of the property. Scotland runs its own arrangements and its own register, and the service covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland points Scottish users elsewhere.

What it is not is a survey. An EPC is produced by entering observed construction data into a standard calculation method, which means it rates the building as the method describes it rather than as it behaves. It does not assess condition, damp, ventilation performance or workmanship, and its recommendations are generated rather than designed. Treating an EPC band as a diagnosis is the single most common mistake in British home energy work.

The scheme requirements used by retrofit assessors define a retrofit assessment as the process of assessing the characteristics of an existing dwelling, including its local context, fabric, form, services, condition, heritage significance, ventilation, energy efficiency and occupancy, in order to provide information for the preparation of a retrofit design. The written output is a retrofit assessment report, which communicates the assessor's evidence to a retrofit coordinator. Assessments must be completed via a site visit, other than in narrowly defined exceptions.

The content list is what separates it from an EPC. The assessment covers an appraisal of the dwelling's heritage, architectural features, structure, construction and condition; identification of the installed building services, their locations, the areas they serve and confirmation that they work; constraints imposed by the local planning authority; measures already installed or proposed; an appraisal of construction sufficient to establish U-values and the moisture properties of floors, walls and roofs; a measured survey of the heat loss envelope including basements and attics; constraints imposed by the site, such as elevation and exposure; the location and severity of existing construction defects, structural defects or leaks relevant to the recommendations; an appraisal of occupancy including the presence of vulnerable people; and an estimate of annual fuel use, costs and carbon dioxide emissions.

It also covers ventilation explicitly, including the location and severity of any condensation or mould growth in the dwelling, any intermittent extract fans or passive stack ventilators and where they are, and any background ventilators. Where the risk pathway is unclear, the guidance directs the assessor to proceed as a Path B assessment, treating that as the default. That combination of condition, ventilation and occupancy in one document is the reason it is worth buying before committing to a package of measures.

If the question is legal, buy the EPC. You need one to sell, to let, or on completion of a new home, it lasts ten years, and no other document substitutes for it. If the question is what to do to the house and in what order, buy the retrofit assessment, because it is the only one of the three that looks at condition, ventilation, planning constraints and the people living there together.

If the question is why one room is cold, or why a wall that was insulated last year still feels like an outside wall, buy a physical diagnostic. Thermal imaging on a cold morning finds slumped, missing or bypassed insulation that no calculation will ever reveal, and an airtightness test measures leakage rather than assuming it.

One point of confusion is worth clearing up. An Energy Performance Report produced within a retrofit assessment is not an EPC and is not lodged on the government EPC register; it is submitted to the retrofit assessor's scheme instead. Where one is used, the scheme requirements state that it must be produced by a domestic energy assessor who is also the retrofit assessor, registered under the same scheme provider. So buying a retrofit assessment does not automatically give you a valid EPC for a sale.

The government's partial response to the consultation on reforms to the energy performance of buildings regime confirms that the existing single cost metric for domestic EPCs will be replaced with four new headline metrics: energy cost, fabric performance, heating system and smart readiness. It also states that existing EPCs will retain their ten-year validity, and that the intention is to maintain the current ten-year validity period for reformed certificates, so a certificate you hold now does not become worthless when the new ones arrive.

One change is worth planning around if you are selling or letting. The response confirms a shift so that an EPC is required at the point of marketing a property rather than at the point of sale or rent. In practice that means arranging the assessment before the listing goes live rather than during the sale.

Scotland is on its own track. The Scottish Government states that it is reforming EPCs, and that the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2025 will bring new-style certificates with more detailed ratings and strengthened quality assurance. Northern Ireland operates its own arrangements again. If the property is not in England or Wales, check the national position rather than assuming the GOV.UK pages apply.

GOV.UK says plainly that the cost of an assessment varies by assessor and by the size of the property, and that pattern holds across all three types. What moves a quotation is the size and complexity of the building, how many separate elements and extensions have to be measured, whether the assessor needs loft and underfloor access, whether a full retrofit assessment with condition and ventilation appraisal is being carried out rather than a certificate, whether equipment such as a thermal camera or a blower door is involved, and how far the assessor is travelling. Traditional buildings, with solid brick or stone walls, take longer to assess properly.

LokalMatch is only the introduction. Say what the property is and which of the three assessments you think you need, add your postcode, and assessors covering your area make contact. It costs homeowners nothing to ask; the businesses pay for the enquiries they get. LokalMatch does not carry out assessments, does not set fees and does not vet, rank or recommend the people who respond, so confirming that an EPC assessor is accredited, or that a retrofit assessor is registered with a scheme provider, is a check to make yourself.