22 April 2021

Understanding Building Compliance – Your FAQs answered

Written by Nina Brown

Last Friday our Key Account Manager Elizabeth and Technical Support Manager Mark, along with Water Specialist Kris Roland of Severn Trent, lead a webinar on Understanding Building Compliance in conjunction with the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management, hosted by Nicola Lathbury, MD of Hexagon Group.  

We would like to thank all of you who attended the webinar or have subsequently viewed the video. During the webinar we received a lot of questions, over a wide range of topics that we covered, including statutory maintenance requirements, types of maintenance on the market, changes in guidance for HVAC systems in response to COVID and EPC and MEES updates.

Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get through all your questions, so we have put together this blog to cover the most common questions we received.

If you do think of anymore then please contact us and one of the team will get back to you.

 

conducting webinar

Frequently Asked Questions

With regards to Covid-safe practices not being certified, such as 100% fresh air, are you aware of any ongoing certification processes or investigations that may confirm or deny these risk preventative measures?

In a Covid-safe world, we would be very keen to explore any such future certification on such practices, however, at present, we are not aware of any certification. However, risk preventative guidance methods provided by REHVA, which our guidance during the webinar was based on, are in line with the guidance provided by The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Full details can be found here.

In addition, HSE also provides guidance which mirrors the approach hospitals take. By maximising the ventilation for the space, there is a greater chance of dilution and removal of aerosols in the air. This of course does not work on its own merit and requires other measures to be kept in place. i.e. social distancing. A risk assessment should be completed for the particular space, an example risk assessment template is provided here.

RESET provide an air quality certification, however this will require the installation of air quality monitoring tools to achieve this.

 

Are there any restrictions on use of hot air hand driers in toilets at present?

The current guidance is that either hand towels or hand dryers can be used. The guidance for toilet extraction is that it is run 24/7 so using a hand drier will be minimal risk because of this.

 

Under MEES is there a positive obligation on landlords at 1st April 2023 to obtain an EPC where there isn’t one at present?

There is no positive obligation for landlords to obtain an EPC at 1st April 2023 if there is not one present. However, this obligation would be triggered if there was construction, sale, letting or change in the size of the building/unit in question.

 

With the EPC, Domestic Properties last 10 years, is this the same for commercial properties?  

It is, Commercial Property EPCs are valid for 10 years. However, if there if there is a significant change in the building, such as an extension or refurbishment than a new EPC will have to be produced. A building can only have one EPC at a time so the new one would replace the old one.

Still have questions? Ask us below!

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