Energy Performance Certificate (APE)

• The APE (Energy Performance Certificate) is the document that describes the energy characteristics of a building, house or apartment. It is a monitoring tool that summarizes with a scale from A4 to G (10-step scale) the energy performance of buildings.

The EPA is mandatory in cases of:

1. New construction: new buildings must have an APE prepared by an energy certifier who is independent and unrelated to the design and construction phases of the building
2. Major renovations: properties undergoing major renovations must have an APE .As defined by DL 63/2013, “major renovations” include interventions involving an area of more than 25 percent of the building envelope, such as the renovation of exterior plaster and roof waterproofing
3. Demolition and reconstruction: (as defined by Presidential Decree 380/01 Consolidated Text of Construction)

BUILDINGS USED BY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Such buildings, including schools, when they have an area greater than 250 square meters, must have an EPA and when greater than 500 square meters the document must be displayed prominently to the public

CLIMATE MANAGEMENT CONTRACTS IN PUBLIC BUILDINGS

If a new contract is entered into (or an existing contract is renewed) for the heating or air conditioning systems of a public building, it must have an EPA

Its mandatory nature is enshrined in Decree 63/2013, converted by Law 90/2013, and the 3 interministerial decrees issued on June 26, 2015, in the following cases:

1. sale of real estate
2. donation of real estate
3. lease of entire buildings (the APE must be prepared and attached to the contract)
4. leasing of individual housing units (the APE must be prepared and may not be attached to the contract)

In such cases, it is the responsibility of the landlord to have an energy certifier draw up the APE at his or her expense and provide it to the prospective buyer or tenant, under penalty of financial penalties.

Paragraph 3 of Article 119 of the Relaunch Decree regulates the minimum technical requirements to be met in order to qualify for the 110% Ecobonus, stipulating that interventions must ensure the improvement of at least two energy classes of the building or building units located within multi-family buildings, or the achievement of the highest energy class, to be demonstrated by the energy performance certificate before and after the intervention, issued by a qualified technician in the form of a sworn statement. ASACERT will undertake for individuals and firms in charge of the design and execution of works, to carry out the procedures for obtaining the Energy Performance Certificate (APE). The ASACERT energy certifier prepares the certificate following the inspection of the property and has specific expertise in energy efficiency applied to buildings.

WHY APE | An Energy Performance Certificate, compiled as a result of careful and thoughtful technical evaluation by ASACERT technicians, allows you to:

• Evaluate and compare building performance;
• To know the performance technically achievable by the property following an evaluated energy upgrading intervention;
• Greatly increase the value of the property

HOW IT IS CARRIED OUT | The work of the ASACERT energy certifier consists of a step-by-step process during which ASACERT technicians:

1. collect the required documentation (cadastral survey, floor plan, planting record, etc.);
2. Carry out an inspection to collect the information needed to determine energy performance indices (stratigraphies, characteristics of building elements and installations);
3. through one of the software certified by the Italian Thermotechnical Committee (CTI), the ASACERT technician performs the calculations necessary to determine the overall energy performance index and to identify the energy class of the building;
4. indicate specific improvement interventions.

The validity of an EPA is, in most cases, 10 years.

A copy of the asseveration will be transmitted telematically to Enea.

WHY ASACERT | It is necessary to rely on the qualified technicians, which ASACERT provides, because the certifier has very important civil and criminal responsibilities:

• In Paragraph 14 of Article 119 of the Relaunch Decree, the legislature stipulates that any untruthfulness of the attestations will result in forfeiture of the Ecobonus benefit and administrative penalties (under Law No. 689/1981);
• the penalty regime for those who issue false asseverations is also tightened.

The Ministry of Economic Development will directly be the body responsible for monitoring compliance with the provisions, it becomes functional at this point for technicians to take out a professional policy for the protection of stakeholders.

In particular:

• False asseverations: without prejudice to the application of criminal sanctions where the act constitutes a crime, in the case of issuing false attestations and asseverations an administrative fine of 2 thousand euros to 15 thousand euros for each false attestation or asseveration rendered;
• civil liability policy: in order to guarantee their clients and the state budget compensation for any damages caused by the work performed by the technicians, the technicians will have to take out an insurance policy of not less than 500 thousand euros, with a limit of liability appropriate to the number of certificates/assessments issued and the amounts of interventions covered by them.

Inspection activities are carried out by ASACERT’s specialized technicians with guaranteed impartiality. ASACERT does not allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise its moral, ethical and legal integrity, as also stated in the corporate quality policy document.