Selling a property is rarely a quick process.
For residential property, recent estimates commonly place the period from an accepted offer to completion at around 12 to 20 weeks. Once the time needed to prepare the property, launch it to the market and secure a buyer is included, the full process can approach six months.
Commercial sales can take longer still. There is no reliable single average because the market covers everything from small vacant units to complex investment assets, but a period of six to 12 months from listing to completion is commonly cited. The property type, funding arrangements, tenancy position and level of due diligence can all have a significant effect. In either case, the exact timeline is difficult to predict.
There may be delays caused by surveys, searches, legal enquiries, financing, lease information or the other parties involved in the transaction. Some can be managed, while others are largely outside the seller’s or agent’s control.
That makes it particularly frustrating when the process is slowed by something that could have been arranged at the beginning. A prime example is a Domestic or Commercial EPC that hasn’t been arranged early enough. Whether you are selling a home or commercial premises, arranging your EPC early helps ensure your marketing can begin without avoidable delays.
The point of this article is not to suggest that an EPC is usually the main reason a property sale becomes delayed, it generally is not.
Domestic transactions can be affected by mortgage approvals, local authority searches, survey findings, conveyancing enquiries and the wider property chain. A delay elsewhere in the chain can hold up every transaction connected to it.
Commercial sales can involve an even broader range of information.
The buyer may need to review leases, service charge accounts, planning records, building condition, environmental information and the financial performance of the asset. Funding and investment approvals can add further stages, particularly where several parties are involved.
Much of this is unavoidable. Buyers need sufficient information to make a properly informed decision, while solicitors and lenders need to protect the parties they represent.
But the length and complexity of the process makes early preparation more important, not less.
Property professionals cannot remove every source of uncertainty from a transaction.
They cannot guarantee how quickly a buyer’s mortgage will be approved or how long another solicitor will take to answer an enquiry. They may also have limited control over a survey finding, a problem with the title or a delay further along a residential chain.
What they can do is make sure the information that will predictably be required is prepared as early as possible. This applies to legal documents, property records and management information and it also applies to the EPC.
For both homes and commercial buildings, an EPC is generally required when a property is sold or let, subject to certain exemptions. Government guidance for non-domestic property states that the seller must commission the certificate before the building is marketed. Domestic sellers and agents must also make the EPC available to prospective buyers.
The requirement should therefore not come as a surprise halfway through the transaction.
When a new sales instruction is received, one of the first checks should be whether the property already has a valid Domestic EPC or Commercial EPC, depending on the property type.
Certificates are normally valid for 10 years, so a new assessment may not always be needed. Existing Domestic EPCs and Commercial EPCs for properties in England and Wales can be checked through the government register.
However, the existence of a certificate should not simply be assumed.
It may have expired, relate to a previous configuration of the building or contain information that no longer reflects the property. Commercial properties can be particularly complicated where units have been divided, combined or altered since the previous assessment.
Identifying that problem early provides time to arrange access, collect evidence and complete the assessment without affecting the wider marketing process.
Leaving the check until photography has been completed, particulars have been prepared and the property is ready to launch creates unnecessary pressure.
The assessment itself may be completed quickly, but access still needs to be coordinated and the assessor may need supporting evidence about insulation, heating systems, lighting or previous improvement works.
A task that would have been routine two weeks earlier can suddenly become urgent.
The solution is not to treat a Domestic or Commercial EPC as a certificate that needs to be produced as quickly as possible, regardless of the quality of the assessment.
A fast turnaround is valuable, particularly when a property is close to being marketed. But speed should not come at the expense of collecting the correct information.
The rating can influence how buyers understand the property.
For a homeowner, it may shape expectations around running costs or future improvements. For a commercial purchaser or asset manager, it may also form part of a wider consideration of compliance risk, capital expenditure and the future marketability of the building.
The significance of the rating may also extend beyond running costs and future improvements. Property finance is increasingly being linked to energy efficiency, with some lenders offering preferential mortgage products or incentives for buildings that achieve certain EPC ratings. A result that does not properly reflect the property could therefore have wider knock-on effects, potentially influencing the finance options available to a buyer or owner as well as their perception of the building.
Where improvements have already been completed, the assessor may need evidence to ensure they are properly reflected. This could include information about insulation, glazing, heating systems or commercial lighting installations.
Using defaults because evidence was not available can affect the result.
That is why the best time to arrange the assessment is before it becomes an emergency. It gives the assessor and property owner time to identify any missing information rather than rushing to produce a certificate against an immediate marketing deadline.
A missing EPC is unlikely to add months to an otherwise straightforward transaction. But that does not mean the delay is insignificant.
The early stages of a sale are often about building momentum. The seller has made the decision to proceed, the agent has prepared the marketing material and there may already be prospective buyers or investors waiting to review the opportunity.
Any outstanding requirement can interrupt that process.
For a residential agent, it might delay the property going live or create additional communication with the vendor at a point when the instruction should be moving forward smoothly.
For a commercial agent, it may hold up the preparation of marketing information or leave an important part of the data room incomplete. It can also create uncertainty where prospective purchasers are considering the property’s current energy performance and future upgrade requirements.
The issue is not simply the number of days lost.
It is the fact that they did not need to be lost at all.
The simplest approach is to make the EPC check a routine part of every new instruction.
The first step is to search for an existing certificate and confirm whether it remains valid and appropriate for the property being sold.
Where a new assessment is required, it can then be arranged alongside photography, floor plans, property particulars and the collection of legal or management information.
For commercial properties, it may also be sensible to consider whether the current rating raises questions that are likely to emerge during the sale.
A prospective buyer may want to understand the potential cost of improving the building, particularly where the property is let or expected to remain within an investment portfolio. Identifying this early allows the seller and agent to provide a more considered response than simply reacting when the question is raised during due diligence.
This does not mean every sale requires a detailed energy improvement strategy.
It means recognising when the EPC is likely to be a straightforward administrative requirement and when it may have wider relevance to the transaction.
An EPC will not make a property chain move faster, complete legal enquiries or secure a buyer’s finance. It will not remove the complexity from a commercial investment sale either. But property transactions already contain enough uncertainty without adding delays that could easily have been avoided.
Checking the certificate at the beginning, arranging the assessment early and allowing enough time to collect the right evidence are all relatively simple steps.
They help the agent launch the property with the required information in place. They reduce last-minute communication with the seller and make it less likely that questions about the building’s energy performance will emerge unexpectedly later.
At R2G, we support agents with domestic and commercial EPCs, including arranging access and communicating directly with property owners or occupiers where required.
Our aim is to make the assessment a straightforward part of the instruction process, while still taking the care needed to ensure the property and any improvements made to it are properly understood.
A property sale may take several months, the EPC does not need to be the part that slows it down or creates an additional headache.
If you’re preparing a property for sale or letting, contact R2G early so your EPC is ready before your property reaches the market.
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