CORRECTLY ADDRESSED EPC's

The address against which your EPC is lodged is, in our opinion, one of the most important aspects of the document. Too often we're asked to find an existing EPC on the National Register because the property owner, or a solicitor or agent acting on their behalf , has been unable to find a document, even when they are fairly sure one exists. The address on the EPC document is the only identifier to link the assessed building parts to the rating achieved and with increasing importance of the achieved EPC rating for lettings and refinance uses, it's important that the legal and banking professionals involved can connect the EPC's they are given with the premises being considered.

One of the most misleading parts of many EPC addresses is the use of business names to identify buildings or building parts. Businesses close down or move on and after a few short years people forget who occupied premises. Premises need to be identified by longstanding building names or street numbers, detail that can be checked against maps and council records. Even then, when the assessed premises are only a part of a building, a few words of description in the first line of the lodgement address can make all the difference to correct identification in the future. Changes are being considered which may improve our ability to be specific about the parts of a building covered by an EPC but to avoid legal delays and the expense of lost EPC's we believe 'right first time' is the preferred approach.

Sometimes, when doing the research necessary to confirm an address, we do find building owners can fall in to the trap of using what some call 'snob addresses'. An example of this might be to identify a property to be in one county when in fact the correct address is for an adjoining county - remember your address is determined by the Royal Mail sorting office your property is served from and may not match the side of a county boundary that the property sits near to. Postcodes are also an issue and it's easy to get in to the bad habit of using a postcode that is for the other end of a building or other side of the street. Finally, as Royal Mail manage their delivery network, a postcode can be changed to meet their operational needs, so what was once correct may not be correct now! Always check your postcode using the Royal Mail PAF website .