Energy certificates when selling — the seller's duty

On a sale, the seller must ensure there is an energy performance certificate for the building that is no older than ten years, and the energy performance must be stated as soon as the property is advertised. The duty lies with whoever owns the building — it is not the estate agent's obligation in the eyes of the law, even though the agent is in practice the one who discovers the certificate is missing. The rules follow from the Act (2006:985) on energy performance certificates for buildings.

What must exist, and when

Point in time	Requirement
When the property is offered	Energy performance must be stated in the advertising
At viewings	The certificate must be made available to prospective buyers
At the sale	A certificate no older than ten years must exist

The order in the table is the whole point: the requirement bites when the property is offered, not on completion day. A certificate ordered after the listing is published is therefore already late, and the energy expert additionally needs time for inspection and registration.

Who does what

• The seller/owner is responsible for the certificate existing and for the figure appearing in the advertisement.
• The energy expert produces the certificate and registers it in Boverket's register.
• The estate agent conveys the figure in the marketing and must inform the buyer. The Swedish Estate Agents Inspectorate oversees the agent's obligations — but the underlying responsibility for the certificate existing does not transfer to the agent.

Can a buyer require the seller to pay for a certificate afterwards?

If no valid certificate exists at the sale, the buyer may under the Act have one produced at the seller's expense, but the right is time-limited and presupposes the buyer acts within that period. That is the mechanism that makes this duty bite in practice — the cost lands on the seller even after the deal has closed. If the question arises in a live transaction, check the current wording of the Act or take it up with the agent, since the deadline and the details are the kind of thing that has changed over time.

In a larger portfolio it is the disposal that exposes the gaps

For a housing company the sale requirement is rarely a problem in itself. What happens is something else: the sale process is the occasion on which somebody checks for the first time whether the certificate exists and is valid, and that is when the gaps surface — often on buildings that have been in the portfolio for decades.

Three things that tend to appear at once:

1. The certificate is older than ten years.
2. It covers a different building on the same property — the certificate is per building, not per property designation.
3. Its data no longer holds after a completed energy measure.

All three are cheap to handle in advance and expensive to handle mid-transaction. The practical answer is to know status per building before the process, not during — see requirements and validity and the annual calendar.

The energy class is what appears in the listing

What meets the market is not the whole certificate but the energy performance and therefore the energy class. An improved class is one of very few technical facts a prospective buyer actually reads, which is why a new certificate after a completed measure sometimes pays for itself in the listing alone. What the letters mean: energy class A–G.

We make no claim about how much an energy class affects price. That figure varies with market, location and property, and the general percentages in circulation are not something we can substantiate.

Knowing where you stand before the process

In Emphyx the certificate data sits per building, drawn from the certificate and from Boverket's open register — see energy certificates. The benefit in a disposal is simple: you can answer "which of these nineteen buildings lack a valid certificate?" before you release the prospectus, not after.

If you are selling a single house this is not a system question at all. Call a certified energy expert well before advertising and the matter is settled.