Collective energy assessment: what the condo board must check

Older residential buildings can no longer avoid a building-wide energy assessment. Here is what the board should check.

Building-wide energy assessments have been phased in by size: large buildings first, then mid-sized ones, and now the smallest. An older residential building without one is behind on a legal obligation, whatever its size.

Commissioning the assessment is the property manager’s job, not the board’s. In practice, though, it is usually the board that notices it is missing, compares assessor quotes and explains the results to owners.

Is your building covered?

• Mainly residential use — a mixed building with shops still counts if housing dominates.
• Built before the cut-off date set by the phase-in schedule.
• The schedule targeted very large buildings first, then mid-sized ones, then the smallest.
• The assessment is renewed every ten years, unless a more recent study or renovation works allow an exemption.

So the question is no longer whether you are covered, but whether it has been done and where the report is. File it alongside the maintenance log and the asbestos file.

What the report contains

It describes the whole building: envelope, insulation, windows, heating and hot water, ventilation. It produces an energy label and a climate label, an estimate of consumption and emissions, and a list of recommended works with expected savings.

That makes it far more than a formality: it gives the board a shared technical basis for discussing renovation instead of trading impressions. It feeds directly into the multi-year works plan and an energy renovation project.

What the board should actually do

• Check the item stays on the meeting agenda until the assessment is done.
• Ask for several quotes from certified assessors and compare like for like: buildings visited, on-site survey or desk study, presentation at the meeting or report only.
• Check the assessor is certified, insured, and independent from the firms that might carry out the works.
• Collect the full report, not just the label, and make it available to owners.
• Carry the recommendations into the next meetings instead of letting the report gather dust.

For the tendering itself, the method is the same as for any contractor: see how to compare quotes with confidence.

Do not confuse the studies

Three documents get mixed up. The collective assessment covers the building’s energy performance. The individual one covers a single unit at sale or letting. The global technical study is a wider review of the building’s condition, from which a works schedule follows.

The confusion is expensive: you either order the same thing twice or believe an obligation is met when it is not. See which study applies to your building.

Turning results into decisions

A poor rating is not a penalty; it is a costed starting point. The board can use it to rank, sequence and price works across several years, drawing on the works fund already built up.

The classic mistake is trying to vote everything at once. Roof insulation, a new boiler and an insulating façade renovation do not belong to the same year or the same budget — but they gain from being presented as steps in one coherent plan.

A study with no follow-up is a cost. A study built into a works plan becomes an investment.

Keep track of your obligations with CoproHarmony

CoproHarmony lets the board centralise mandatory studies, quotes received, meeting decisions and the works that follow. Each year the board’s annual report is generated from that history. Create your free space.

While waiting for works, two immediate levers: collective heating settings and the funding package.

If the building comes out badly rated, see what a poor rating changes.