What's a NABERS (and a BEEC) ???

Everything just gets more complicated as time goes by ... and now there's more rules about commercial building space.

On 1 November 2010 the Commonwealth Building Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010 starts new obligations on owners and landlords of large commercial office spaces to disclose energy efficiency information to purchasers and tenants.

The new laws apply to owners, landlords and sub-lessors who are selling, leasing or sub-leasing buildings or areas of a building with a net lettable area of 2000 square metres or more and requires them to -

• hold a valid, current building energy efficiency certificate
• provide a copy of building energy efficiency certificate to prospective purchasers or tenants
• include in advertisements for the sale, lease or sublease of a building an energy efficiency rating

The Regulations explain what information must be included in a building energy efficiency certificate (called a BEEC) which includes - 

• the net lettable area of the building
• the hours of occupancy for the building
• the energy consumption of the building
• the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the building
• an energy efficiency rating

Only an accredited assessor can prepare a BEEC and once issued, the BEEC must be registered with the Building Energy Efficiency Register and is valid for up to 12 months.


There's a transitional period of 12 months during which a valid National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) certificate can be disclosed in place of a BEEC.


And, there are some exemptions (importantly for strata titled property because there is no current way of rating those buildings) and anyone can apply for a specific exemption on a building by building basis.


Non-compliance can be problematic because there's fines of up to $110,000 and anyone who fails to comply more than twice in 12 months will be recorded in a non-compliance register.  Plus there's auditors with powers of entry to check on compliance and the accuracy of certificates.


So, it's pretty important for owners, landlords and sub-lessors to understand the new controls, get their buildings rated and comply with disclosure requirements.


You can find out more about the scheme at the Commercial Building Disclosure website.


So now I have to get rid of my NABERS for a BEEC.




Francesco ...