Energy certificates, mandatory for real estate transactions starting 20th of July

„Starting 20th of July 2013, every owner will have the obligation to make available to the potential buyer or tenant, as case, before signing the contract, a copy of the energy certificate, otherwise the sale or lease agreements will be submitted to the relative nullity, under the provisions of the Civil code. The energy efficiency started to be an important issue for the potential tenants or buyers of the office spaces, on the background of special attention being paid in the last three years to the maintenance costs and their optimization. Since the beginning of the year to present approx. 20% of our clients have chosen energy efficient office buildings, properly insulated“, has declared Alexandru Petrescu, managing partner within the real estate Esop Consulting.

The requirement of the energy certificate was introduced by the Law 159/2013, published last week in the Official Monitor, for the modification and addendum of the Law 372/2005 regarding the energy performance of the buildings.  

The new law provides that for the buildings and building units to be sold or rented, the investor/owner/administrator has the obligation to submit the potential buyer or tenant, before the signing, a copy of the certificate, in order for these to acknowledge the energy performance of the building. At the signing of the sale contract, the owner has the obligation to transfer the certificate, in original, to the new owner.

At the date of the contract registration, the owner has the obligation to submit to the fiscal authority a copy of the certificate, while the original will remain with the owner.

The requirements regarding the energy certificate should have entered in force since the beginning of 2010, but it was postponed several times, after the notaries sustained that the requirement will increase the price of the old houses with 5 to 10% and will block the transactions, and the Government decided that the practice procedures of the new system are not clear enough and the number of energy auditors is not sufficient. (source: zf.ro)