How to find out if you have an EPC.

Inspect your Energy is often asked about an EPC that may have already been done. Some sellers, new owners, and landlords have never received the full EPC or they may have lost the RRN (report reference number)

We hope this guide will help.

A property bought/sold/rented since late 2007 may (or should) have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). This could have been part of the HIP or as of now be an independent EPC report. These EPCs are valid at present for 10 years.

If you find that the recovered EPC does not accurately describe the property, find out why, it may be best to instruct another DEA to carry out a new accurate report. If you think the original EPC is wrong then get in touch with the assessors accredited body and make a complaint.

You can download a copy from the EPC Register, if you have the RRN number, the Government-approved register stores all lodged EPCs.

If however you do not have the correct details and believe an EPC inspection has been carried out follow these steps.

1) Go to www.epcregister.com

2) Choose the 'Lost Report Reference Number' link.

3) Certain questions will be asked. Your answer to "Why do you believe an EPC exists for the property?" might be "I bought it in 2009, so it must have an EPC". You have to confirm that you are either the owner or tenant as you do not have the right to obtain a copy of someone else's EPC.

4) Submit your request - you will get an email confirmation. This may take some time for you to receive a response.

5) If the property already has an EPC it will confirm this. It will tell you about who (the DEA) energy assessor is who provided the original certificate. It may however say that the DEA is no longer in business. If that happens then you will have to contact a registered DEA or the accredited body for them to find the EPC.

6) Phone the energy assessor or email them for the copy of the EPC or RRN. You may have to give them a valid reason. Hopefully most EPC providers will be happy to give you this information. Don’t expect a paper copy to be sent, they also might ask for a fee to be paid; our business would never do this. We would gladly help you and send you the EPC.

7) If you are sent the RRN, (24 digit number including the dashes-) go to the EPC Register and go to the Report Retrieval option. Input the RRN you can then download the EPC certificate.


8) This may also help 'Find Assessor/Inspector' menu option at www.epcregister.com to look up the assessor and see if there are more contact details available. You can also check that the DEA is still registered. You should also do this if you need to instruct a DEA to carry out a new EPC inspection to see if they are fully accredited.

EPCs at present are valid for 10 years; a new one could be a better option even though one already has been done. Many changes could have occurred when the original assessment had been done.

Find out more about the EPC.

The www.epcregister.com also gives you access to the 'EPC Adviser. Input your RRN to try out different combinations of energy efficiency improvements using the latest energy prices. See our page on this to help. EPC Adviser.