Every home marketed for sale or let in England and Wales since 2008 must have an Energy Performance Certificate, and the register is public and free. You can look up a property's current rating, its floor area and its recommended improvements without asking the agent for anything.
How to do it
- Search the address on the official GOV.UK "Find an energy certificate" service, or use the EPC finder on this site, which queries the same register.
- Check the certificate date. An EPC is valid for ten years, so the one on file may pre-date a new boiler, new windows or an extension.
- Read the floor area. It is one of the few free, consistent size measures available, and it turns a sold price into a £ per square metre you can compare.
- Read the recommendations page, not just the letter. It lists the measures the assessor thought would help and their indicative cost and saving.
- If there is no certificate at all, that is itself informative: it usually means the property has not been marketed since 2008, or it falls into one of the exempt categories.
A point worth knowing before October 2026: the certificate is being reformed to show four separate metrics (fabric, heating system, cost and smart readiness) rather than one headline letter. A property's headline rating can therefore move without anything physical changing.
Check it yourself, free
EPC finder — any UK address — no account, no email wall.
Sources
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Last reviewed: 2026-09-20. We check these against the linked official sources and re-date the page when they change.