Energy performance certificate: when you must have one

When do I need a certificate?

For a sale, a letting, a new building and a major renovation. The duty falls on the builder and on the owner. For apartment buildings, it falls on the owners' association, or on the building manager if none exists.

Sale of a building or a self-contained part of it, including a single flat.
Letting of a building, and since 2016 the letting of a self-contained part too.
A new building. The certificate is one of the documents required for occupancy approval.
A major renovation of a completed building, meaning work affecting more than a quarter of the building envelope's total area.
A building used by a public authority above a set floor area.

The law distinguishes two moments, and people mix them up. A prospective buyer or tenant must be shown the certificate or a copy of it before the contract is concluded. You must hand it over no later than at signing. Doing only the second part isn't enough.

The energy class also has to appear in any advertisement. The regulations add a detail most listings miss: the class must be shown in the same size of type as the price. We cover what each letter means on our page Energy label for a property.

When don't I need one?

The exceptions are a closed list, not a judgement call. If your building doesn't fall under any of them, the duty applies regardless of the building's age or how small a share you're selling.

Buildings with an energy reference floor area under 50 m².
Listed heritage buildings and buildings in a heritage reservation.
Places of worship and buildings used for religious purposes.
Holiday homes used only part of the year, whose estimated consumption is below a quarter of year-round use.
Industrial and production facilities, workshops and agricultural buildings with consumption under 195 MWh a year.
Buildings used by intelligence services, state defence and the protection of classified information.

Besides these, there's a route that isn't an exception but an agreement. It applies to buildings built before 1947 that haven't had a major renovation since. For these, no certificate is needed for a sale or a letting if both sides agree to it in writing. Without that agreement, the duty stands.

Watch out for a distinction that trips people up. For energy performance requirements on a building, the law mentions both a heritage reservation and a heritage zone. For the certificate, it names a listed heritage building and a reservation only. A house in a heritage zone that isn't itself listed still needs a certificate.

Who issues it, and how do I check it?

An energy specialist authorised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Ministerstvo průmyslu a obchodu). No one else. A person established in another EU member state may also draw one up, if they're authorised to do so at home.

The ministry keeps a public list of authorised specialists. It can be filtered by region and by type of authorisation, because a specialist might be authorised only for audits or only for air-conditioning inspections. Each entry shows whether the authorisation is still valid, so you can also spot someone who no longer meets the conditions to practise.

You can check this from the document itself. The certificate's report carries the specialist's identifying details, their signature and the date it was drawn up. That's what you look them up by in the list.

No regulation sets the price for drawing one up, it's agreed between the parties. Ask in advance what the specialist needs from you and whether a site visit is included in the price.

How long is it valid?

Ten years, but not unconditionally. Validity ends sooner if the building undergoes a major renovation, or if the way it's heated, cooled or has hot water prepared changes.

In practice that means changing the heating method or installing a heat pump ends the certificate's validity immediately, even if it's only a year old. Anyone who fits a new heat source and then sells needs a new certificate.

The second thing to check is the date it was drawn up. Certificates issued in 2016 have expired this year, so open yours before a sale and check the date. It's in the report, next to the energy specialist's signature.

This isn't just a complication. A new certificate after a heat source is replaced can show a different class, because the factor used to convert delivered energy into primary energy changes too. How that conversion works is explained on our page Energy label for a property.

What if the seller doesn't have one?

For a flat, the owners' association should hold it. A unit owner must request it in a demonstrable way. The association must hand it over within 30 days if it already has one, or within 60 days if it still needs to obtain it.

If it still doesn't arrive after a written request, there's an alternative that almost nobody mentions. A unit owner can replace the certificate with billing statements for electricity, gas and heat supplied over the past three years. In that case, the duty to state the class in an advertisement doesn't apply either.

Those billing statements, incidentally, tell a buyer more about how the building actually runs than a class does, since they're real consumption, not a calculation. They won't do for a mortgage, though: the discount for an energy class relies on a certificate being produced.

A house has no owners' association, so the owner has to obtain the certificate themselves. Without it, you can't advertise the correct class or claim the discount from a bank.

What happens if it isn't produced?

A fine of up to 200 thousand koruna and the worst class in the listing. Offences under the Energy Management Act are handled by the State Energy Inspectorate (Státní energetická inspekce), at first instance by its regional inspectorate.

The upper limit on the fine for these duties is the same for individuals and companies. It covers not obtaining a certificate at all, and an owner failing to show it, hand it over, or state the class in an advertisement. A higher rate does exist in the law, but it targets something else, for example drawing up certificates without authorisation.

The second consequence is immediate and nobody has to impose it. The graphic part of the certificate is passed to the agent handling a sale or letting, who then keeps it for three years. If they don't receive it, they must state the worst classification in the listing. So the listing goes out marked G, even if the building isn't actually a G.

An estate agent doesn't just owe this to the client either. The law sets a separate offence for the agent, covering both not stating the class and not keeping the graphic part for three years.

The third consequence falls on the buyer and can't be undone. A bank assesses the discount for an energy class against a certificate that's actually been produced, and it can be supplied no later than before the loan is approved. We cover this in detail on our page Green mortgage. Anyone who only supplies the certificate at signing can no longer change the rate.

If you're selling a property that still carries a mortgage, you deal with the certificate alongside removing the charge; the process is on our page Selling a property with a mortgage.

Frequently asked questions

Who pays for the certificate, the seller or the buyer?

The duty to obtain it falls on the owner, so on the seller in a sale. The law doesn't say who pays for it, and that can be agreed differently. In practice, though, the seller needs it before the listing even goes up, because the class has to appear in the advertisement.

Is a copy enough, or does the bank want the original?

The law refers to the certificate or a copy of it, both for showing it before signing and for handing it over. A copy of the graphic part is what goes to the agent. What a bank wants for a mortgage varies, so check with it in advance.

Do I need a certificate if I'm only letting a flat?

Yes, the duty has applied to letting a self-contained part of a building since 2016. A certificate drawn up for the whole building also serves as the certificate for a flat in it, so you'd usually request it from the owners' association.

Do I need a certificate for a holiday cottage too?

Holiday homes used only part of the year are exempt from the duty, on condition that their estimated consumption is below a quarter of what they'd use year-round. A cottage used all year doesn't fall under the exemption.

Can a certificate be drawn up for just one flat?

Only if the flat has its own heat or cooling source independent of the rest of the building, or separately metered and centrally controlled energy supply. Otherwise the certificate drawn up for the whole building applies, and a separate one can't be produced.

Do new rules apply to certificates from 2026?

Under the law as it stands at the end of September 2026, no new duty regarding certificates has come into force. The EU rules discussed around renovation passports and a recalculated class scale haven't yet been written into Czech law. So what's described above still applies.