In recent weeks, the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency has sent informative letters to many companies, public buildings and care institutions about the EPC for non-residential buildings. These letters state that every non-residential building with a usable floor area of more than 1,000 m² must have an EPC NR (non-residential) as of January 1, 2025.
If you also received this letter, be sure to check if the requirement applies to your building. However, if it was sent in error, you do not have to take any action.
What is the EPC?
The Energy Performance Certificate or EPC shows the energy efficiency of the building. In this way, as an owner, you gain insight about the building's energy performance and how to improve it.
What does this new obligation entail?
From January 1, 2025, owners, the holders of rights in rem, leaseholders or superficies of large non-residential buildings with a usable floor area of more than 1,000 m² must have an 'EPC NR' and this regardless of whether the building is rented or sold.
Therefore, if the building is leased, it is not the tenant who must meet this obligation, but rather the owner.
However, this obligation does not apply to buildings for which a demolition permit has been granted. As an owner, you must report this no later than one month before the EPC must be proven renewed within the five years that the demolition work was completed.
Do I have a non-residential building?
According to the Energy Decree, a non-residential building is any building except for the following: residential buildings, stand-alone buildings with a total usable floor area of less than 50m², temporary buildings used in principle for no more than two years, buildings used for worship and religious activities, industrial buildings (building intended for the production, processing, storage or manipulation of goods), workshops, warehouses for non-industrial use, non-residential buildings of an agricultural company, electricity cabins.
In short, all buildings whose primary use is "non-residential" are subject to the requirement. Non-residential buildings include buildings with an office, school, health, sports, commercial, hospitality, or meeting function.
Thus, residential buildings, industrial buildings and agricultural buildings are not covered by this requirement.
What is the price of an EPC?
There is no set cost for an EPC NR. So the best thing you can do is compare the price of different energy experts.
Don't know where to begin your search for an expert. Our experts will be happy to help you get started.
What is the sanction?
VEKA carries out spot checks and sanctions with administrative fines. If you cannot present a valid EPC NR during an inspection, you risk a fine of between 500 and 5,000 euros.
However, paying the fine does not eliminate the need to draw up an EPC NR.
The obligation for formatting remains!
Note!
The obligation to have an EPC NR expands once again on Jan. 1, 2026, to include all large non-residential buildings, regardless of usable floor area. So it certainly can't hurt to have an EPC NR prepared, even if you don't yet fall under the current obligation.
