Commercial EPCs get far less attention than their domestic equivalents, which is odd given the penalties are five times higher. A landlord letting a substandard shop or office is exposed to a maximum penalty of £150,000. The equivalent domestic maximum is £30,000.
This article covers when a non-domestic EPC is required, how the assessment differs from a domestic one, and what the minimum standards actually cost if you get them wrong.
When you need one
A non-domestic EPC is required whenever a commercial building in England or Wales is built, sold or let. The certificate must be commissioned before the building is put on the market, and made available free of charge to anyone seriously considering buying or renting it.
It is valid for ten years, or until a newer certificate replaces it. If you already hold a valid EPC you do not need a new one for each successive letting within that period — though if you have improved the building, a fresh assessment may well be worth commissioning voluntarily to capture the better rating.
The minimum standard, and the date most landlords missed
The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard has applied to non-domestic property since 2018, but it originally caught only new lettings and renewals. That changed on 1 April 2023.
Since that date it has been unlawful to continue letting a non-domestic private rented property with an EPC rating below E, unless a valid exemption is registered. The distinction matters enormously: a lease granted in 2015 on an F-rated unit was compliant when it started and is not compliant now. Nothing about the tenancy has to change for the landlord to fall into breach.
What non-compliance actually costs
The penalties sit in regulation 41 of the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015, and they scale with both the rateable value and the length of the breach:
| Breach | Penalty | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Let in breach for less than 3 months | Greater of £5,000 or 10% of rateable value | £50,000 |
| Let in breach for 3 months or more | Greater of £10,000 or 20% of rateable value | £150,000 |
| False or misleading exemption registration | £5,000 | £5,000 |
A publication penalty applies in addition, meaning details of the breach can be published on the PRS Exemptions Register. For a landlord or agent whose business depends on reputation, that is often the more expensive half.
Separately, failing to make an EPC available to a prospective buyer or tenant carries its own penalty, calculated on the building's rateable value, with a minimum of £500 and a maximum of £5,000.
Enforcement sits with local weights and measures authorities — trading standards — rather than with the fire service or building control.
Why a commercial assessment is a different job
People often assume a commercial EPC is a domestic EPC on a bigger building. It is a different methodology with a different accreditation behind it.
A domestic EPC uses RdSAP, a reduced data model built around dwellings, and is produced by a Domestic Energy Assessor. A non-domestic EPC uses SBEM — the Simplified Building Energy Model — or, for genuinely complex buildings, dynamic simulation modelling. It must be produced by a Non-Domestic Energy Assessor accredited at a level appropriate to the building's complexity.
The practical difference is what gets modelled. A domestic assessment is dominated by fabric and the heating system. A commercial assessment models the building services in detail: heating, cooling, mechanical ventilation, lighting design and lighting controls, hot water, and any renewables. In an office or retail unit, lighting and air conditioning frequently move the rating more than insulation does.
That has a useful consequence. Commercial ratings are often more improvable, and more cheaply improvable, than owners expect — a lighting upgrade and better controls can shift a borderline unit without touching the building fabric.
Exemptions are narrower than people think
There are genuine exemptions from the EPC requirement, including places of worship, temporary buildings intended for two years' use or less, certain low-energy industrial sites and workshops, non-residential agricultural buildings with low energy demand, stand-alone buildings under 50 square metres of useful floor area, and buildings scheduled for demolition with the relevant consents in place.
Listed buildings are the most misunderstood category. They are not automatically exempt. The exemption applies only where compliance with minimum energy performance requirements would unacceptably alter the building's character or appearance — a judgement about specific measures on a specific building, which should be documented rather than assumed.
The MEES exemptions are separate again, and all of them must be registered on the PRS Exemptions Register before you rely on them. An unregistered exemption is not an exemption.
What to do if you own commercial property
Start by finding out what you actually hold. Every EPC lodged in England and Wales is on the public register, so you can check the rating and expiry date of any commercial building you own or manage without commissioning anything.
If a unit sits at F or G and is currently let, that is a live compliance problem rather than a future one, and the penalty clock is running on a scale that grows the longer it goes unaddressed. If a unit sits at E, it is worth understanding how close to the boundary it is before minimum standards move again.