Energy Efficiency Regulations And Recovery Of Lost Staff Time

The Keating Chambers update in this issue covers a significant legislative development on energy performance of buildings and recent case law on recovery of lost management time as damages.

Energy Efficiency Regulations

The aim of the Kyoto Protocol 1997 was to address climate change and set quantified emission limits and reduction obligations with respect to greenhouse gases. As a result of the Protocol, in 2003 the EU brought into effect the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the UK published the Energy White Paper, Our Energy Future ? Creating a Low Carbon Economy, which set a target of a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.

Now, the UK Government has introduced the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations 2007 and the Home Information Pack Regulations 2007 (the ?Regulations') to implement the EPBD. They will create a number of new duties for commercial and residential property owners affecting construction, sales and rentals. The Regulations come into force in stages from 1 August 2007.

Three of the key matters in the Regulations are:

energy performance certificates (EPCs);

display energy certificates (DECs); and

the inspection of air-conditioning systems.

The purpose of an EPC is to provide prospective vendors/tenants with a certificate that sets out the energy efficiency levels of a building. Under the Regulations, EPCs arfe required where a new building is to be built or where an existing building is to be sold or let. The responsibility for provision of the EPC will rest with the vendor, landlord or builder (in the case of new-build) who will make it available, at its own cost, to ?any prospective buyer or tenant'. A valid EPC must be issued by an accredited energy assessor and have both the asset rating of the building (which measures the intrinsic performance potential of the building) and a report containing recommendations for the improvement of the energy performance of the building; however, neither vendor/landlord nor buyer/tenant is obliged (as yet) to implement the recommendations.

Under the Regulations, ?buildings with a total useful floor area of over 1,000m2 occupied by public authorities and by institutions providing public services to a large number of persons ands therefore frequently visited by those persons', must display a DEC. The DEC shows the ?operational rating' (the actual CO2 emission per m2 of floor area).

Whoever ?has control over the operation of' of an...