What a mixed-use building actually needs
Mixed-use property is where compliance gaps hide, because no single certificate covers the building. Each flat needs its own domestic EPC when sold or let. The commercial space needs a non-domestic EPC produced using SBEM, and if it is let it is also subject to the non-domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard. The common parts need a fire risk assessment, and where the building has communal detection, emergency lighting or landlord electrical supplies, those need periodic testing and certification. Ownership is often split too — a freeholder, a commercial tenant, a management company — which is exactly how obligations end up assumed to be someone else's.
How we scope a whole building in one pass
We start with the building rather than the certificate: how many self-contained dwellings, what the commercial use is, what the common parts include, what plant serves what, and who is responsible for each part. From that we produce a scope showing every assessment the building needs, what already exists and is still valid, and what is missing — before any work is instructed. Most freeholders find at least one gap they did not know about, and occasionally an assessment they were paying for twice.
- Dwelling count and tenure confirmed
- Commercial use class and floor area established
- Common parts, plant and landlord supplies identified
- Existing certificates checked for validity and scope
- A single gap list before anything is instructed
Energy: domestic and non-domestic side by side
The dwellings are assessed under RdSAP and lodged individually. The commercial space is modelled under SBEM, which is a different methodology and a different register entry, and where it is let we look at it against the non-domestic minimum standard as well as certifying it. Shared plant is the complication worth naming: a boiler serving both the flats and the shop, or a communal system with commercial metering, has to be represented consistently on both sides or the certificates will disagree with each other in a way a purchaser's surveyor will notice.
Fire and electrical work through our sister brand
Fire risk assessment, fire alarm and emergency lighting certification and electrical installation condition reports are delivered by Fire Risk Specialists, our sister brand, using the same coordination and reporting. That means one visit plan for the building rather than four separate contractors turning up on four days, and one register at the end covering everything. Team EPC remains the energy assessment business — we do not blur the two — but the freeholder deals with one point of contact.
- Fire risk assessment of the common parts and escape routes
- Fire alarm and emergency lighting testing and certification
- Electrical installation condition reports on landlord supplies
- Energy assessment and MEES advice delivered by Team EPC
The compliance register you are left with
At the end you have one schedule listing every certificate for the building: what it covers, when it was issued, when it expires, and what action it recommends. That is the document to hand a lender, a purchaser, an insurer or an enforcement officer, and the document that stops a certificate lapsing quietly because nobody owned the renewal date. We can hold the renewal dates and prompt you ahead of each one.
