How to read an EPC certificate before making an offer

How to find the full EPC for any property

You don't need to ask the agent or wait for the seller to provide it. Every EPC issued in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland is on the government's public register and searchable by address. You can also find it instantly on movegrid alongside flood risk, sold price history, and local data.

The certificate is a PDF. Open it and you'll see several sections — here's what each one means.

Section 1: The rating and estimated costs

At the top you'll see the current band (A–G) and a second band labelled “potential.” The potential rating is what the property could achieve if all the recommended improvements were made. We'll come back to that.

Below the bands you'll see estimated energy costs broken into three categories:

• Lighting — usually the smallest figure and easiest to improve
• Heating — the largest figure and the one most affected by insulation and boiler type
• Hot water — often overlooked but significant in older properties with immersion heaters

These figures assume a “standard occupancy” — they won't match your exact bills, but they're a reliable way to compare one property against another.

Section 2: The features table

This is the most useful part of the certificate and the most overlooked. It lists the main components of the property — walls, roof, floor, windows, heating, hot water — and rates each one from “Very poor” to “Very good.”

What to look for:

• Walls rated “Poor” or “Very poor” — solid wall insulation is expensive (£8,000–£20,000). This is a negotiating point, not a reason to walk away, but price it in.
• Roof rated “Poor” — loft insulation is cheap (£300–£600) and one of the highest-impact improvements. Easy win.
• Main heating listed as “room heaters” or “electric storage heaters” — these are expensive to run. Factor in the cost of installing gas central heating or a heat pump.
• Hot water listed as “electric immersion” — one of the costliest ways to heat water. If there's no boiler feeding the hot water, bills will be higher than the EPC suggests.
• Windows listed as “single glazed” — double glazing costs £400–£600 per window on average. Count the windows before you budget.

Section 3: Recommended improvements

The certificate lists specific recommendations along with estimated costs and the potential saving each improvement would bring per year. Not all of these are realistic — an assessor might recommend solar panels on a north-facing roof — but they give you a starting framework.

Cross-reference the recommended improvements against the features table. If the certificate says “install loft insulation” and the roof is rated “Poor,” that's consistent and worth taking seriously. If the recommendations seem disconnected from the features, the survey may have been done quickly.

The total potential saving figures are cumulative — they assume all improvements are made, not just one. Don't treat them as guaranteed.

Section 4: The certificate date

EPCs are valid for 10 years. A certificate issued in 2016 may describe a property that has since had a new boiler, loft insulation, or double glazing fitted — improvements that would push the rating up. Equally, a property may have deteriorated.

If the certificate is more than 5 years old, ask the seller directly: “Has any work been done on insulation, heating, or windows since this was issued?” If the answer is yes and the improvements are significant, it's worth asking for a new survey — especially if you're considering a green mortgage, which requires a current rating.

Using the EPC to negotiate

A D or E rating with expensive recommended improvements is a legitimate reason to negotiate on price. The key is to quantify it:

1. Identify the improvements most likely to be needed (walls, heating, windows)
2. Get rough quotes — even builder estimates are fine at this stage
3. Present a specific figure to the agent: “The EPC shows the walls are uninsulated and the boiler is pre-2010. We've got quotes suggesting £X to bring it up to standard — we'd like to reflect that in the offer.”

This works better than a vague “the EPC is low.” Specific numbers are harder to dismiss.