Energy performance certificate. The regulations come into force from April 28, 2023.

The energy performance certificate is a document that defines the energy demand in connection with the use of a building or its part. The requirement to prepare a document in certain situations results from EU regulations. According to the EU Directive, when buildings or building units are erected, sold or rented, an energy performance certificate or a copy thereof is to be handed over to any new tenant or buyer. Entering into force on Friday, April 28. The amendment to the Act on the Energy Performance of Buildings and the Construction Law is intended to clarify the existing provisions and increase their effectiveness.

Until now, energy certificates were required when selling or renting real estate. In practice, however, they were rarely prepared and transmitted. The amendment stipulates that the buyer or lessee of real estate will not be able to waive the right to receive an energy certificate. The owner or manager of the real estate (and a person with a cooperative ownership right to the premises or a cooperative tenancy right to the premises) will have to provide the document when drawing up the notarial deed of the sale agreement or when concluding the lease agreement. Failure to comply with this obligation will result in a fine. The fact of transferring the document by the seller will have to be recorded in the notarial deed. The amendment clarifies that the certificate should be prepared for a building if the subject of the sale or lease agreement is a building, and if the subject of the sale or lease agreement is premises, the certificate must be prepared for the premises. As the Ministry of Development emphasizes, an energy performance certificate is not and will not be required when an existing building or premises is used for its own use and it is not intended to be sold or rented. However, it must be prepared when the building or its part – e.g. a residential or commercial premises – will be sold or rented.

The new regulations allow for the possibility of applying to a housing cooperative for free access to a copy of the energy performance certificate (if it has been prepared) or technical documentation of the building, which can be used to prepare a document for a given apartment.

If an energy performance certificate has already been prepared for a building or part of it, from Friday it will be necessary to provide information from the document in the sale or lease announcement: indicators of annual demand for usable energy, final energy, non-renewable primary energy, share renewable energy sources in the annual demand for final energy, as well as in the unit volume of CO2 emissions. In the case of a newly built building, from Friday, April 28. the energy certificate will have to be attached to the notice of completion of construction or to the application for an occupancy permit. However, this does not apply to residential buildings with a built-up area of ​​up to 70 square meters, built to meet their own housing needs. In addition, according to the new regulations, the energy certificate should be placed in a visible place in buildings with a usable area exceeding 500 square meters, where services for the public are provided (e.g. shopping malls, stations) – if the certificate has already been prepared. This obligation also applies to buildings with a usable area exceeding 250 square meters, where clients are served, occupied by judicial authorities, prosecutor’s offices or public administration bodies. The amendment is also intended to eliminate trading in “quasi-certificates”. Therefore, it was decided that the authorized person who drew up the document, under pain of criminal liability, made a statement that the certificate was generated from the central register of energy performance of buildings. The list of persons authorized to draw up certificates can be checked at: https://rejestrcheb.mrit.gov.pl/rejestr-uprawonych. The energy performance certificate is valid for 10 years from the date of its preparation