Lancaster & surrounding postcodes
EPC Lancaster
Eco Futures covers Lancaster, Morecambe, Heysham and the villages of the Lune Valley for domestic Energy Performance Certificates. Coverage runs to anywhere within 40 miles of Preston in a straight line, checked by postcode district, and LA1 to LA6 are all inside it.
The visit is made by an Elmhurst Energy accredited domestic energy assessor, number EES/035222. Guidance allows only an accredited domestic energy assessor to carry out the assessment and produce the certificate. It is lodged on the national EPC register, rates the property from A at best to G at worst, and is valid for ten years. A home with up to three bedrooms is £65, and each bedroom above three adds £5 to a limit of ten, so a four-bedroom house is £70 and a five-bedroom house £75. You pay in full by card when you book.
Accredited, registered and regulated
What it costs
£65 for up to 3 bedrooms.
Then £5 for each additional bedroom: £70 for a four-bed, £75 for a five-bed. Paid in full when you book, with nothing to pay on the day and no deposit.
The postcode districts we cover around Lancaster
LA1 is the city, with Castle, Bulk, John O’Gaunt and Marsh in the centre, Skerton to the north, Bowerham and the two Scotforth wards to the south, and Ellel, Lower Lune Valley, Scale Hall, Torrisholme, University and Westgate around the edge. LA4 is Morecambe, made up of the Bare, Poulton, Torrisholme, West End and Westgate wards, and LA3 carries on into Heysham, Overton and Middleton. All three sit wholly inside the Lancaster local authority. LA2 is the rural outcode, wrapping round the city and reaching into three council areas. It takes in Caton, Halton, Aughton, Hornby and Wray to the east and north-east, Slyne to the north, Quernmore to the south-east, and Cockerham with Upper and Lower Thurnham to the south. It crosses into North Yorkshire at High Bentham, Low Bentham and Clapham, and into Wyre, where a handful of LA2 postcodes fall inside the Forton and Nether Wyresdale parishes. LA5 and LA6 carry the north: Carnforth, Bolton-le-Sands, Warton and Silverdale in LA5, Nether Kellet and Over Kellet in LA6. Both cross into Westmorland and Furness, where Kirkby Lonsdale sits, and LA6 also reaches Ingleton in North Yorkshire.
What the Lancaster housing figures show
The figures below come from the 2021 Census and cover the whole Lancaster local authority, which takes in Morecambe, Heysham and the rural Lune Valley as well as the city. It counted 59,980 households. Semi-detached houses are the largest group at 38.1%, or 22,823 households, terraces follow at 25.5% and 15,302, and detached houses at 19.4% and 11,657. Between them those three types are 83% of the district.
The rest lives in flats, conversions and other structures. 10.9%, or 6,549 households, are in a purpose-built block of flats or tenement. 3.1%, some 1,858 households, are in part of a converted or shared house including bedsits, and 653 more in part of another converted building, which the Census illustrates as a former school, church or warehouse. A further 489 households are in a commercial building and 649 in a caravan or other mobile structure. Guidance sets out that a certificate covers a whole building or any building unit designed or altered for separate use, and gives a self-contained flat as its example.
Tenure comes from the same Census release. 67.1% of Lancaster households own their home, 40,266 in all, and 38.6% own outright with no mortgage, which is 23,152 households. 28.5% own with a mortgage or loan and 0.8% are in shared ownership. Owner-occupation on that scale is larger than the private and social rented sectors put together.
21.7% of households rent privately, 13,029 of them, most of that being the 19.1% renting from a private landlord or letting agency. Social renting accounts for 10.3%, or 6,153 households, split between 5.6% from the council and 4.6% from other social landlords, the smallest of the three main tenures behind owner-occupation and private renting. Renting out a property is one of the three cases in which guidance says you must have an EPC, alongside selling one and building a new one.
Housing mix and tenure figures: ONS Census 2021, tables TS044 and TS054, Lancaster local authority.
Why Lancaster households book an EPC
Selling a home owned outright
23,152 households in the district own outright, 38.6% of the total. Guidance puts the duty to commission a certificate on the seller before the building goes on the market, and it stays there even where an agent arranges it.
Letting a home in the city
13,029 households in the district rent privately. LA1 runs from Castle and Bulk in the centre out to the University ward, and a landlord needs a valid certificate for the building before it is marketed to rent.
A flat in a purpose-built block
6,549 Lancaster households, 10.9% of the district, are in a purpose-built block of flats or tenement. The gov.uk find an energy certificate service shows free of charge whether a valid one is already held.
A property in the rural postcodes
LA2, LA5 and LA6 span four local authorities: Lancaster, Wyre, North Yorkshire, and Westmorland and Furness. All are inside the 40 mile radius, so a house at Wray or Kirkby Lonsdale is priced on the same bedroom ladder as one in the city.
EPCs in Lancaster, answered
- Is Lancaster inside your coverage area?
- Yes. Measured centre to centre from the PR1 district, LA1 is 20 miles out, LA2, LA3 and LA4 are 21 to 23 miles, and LA5 and LA6 are 27 and 29, all inside the 40 mile radius. The order form asks for the house number or name and the postcode, and tells you whether you are covered.
- What does an EPC cost in Lancaster?
- Price is set by the number of bedrooms. Up to three is £65, and every bedroom after that adds £5, to a maximum of ten, so a four-bedroom house is £70 and a five-bedroom house £75. The full amount is taken by card at booking, there is a 14-day right to cancel, and you are refunded in full if the certificate cannot be completed.
- How soon after paying will the visit happen?
- We aim to book the assessment within 24 hours of the order. After paying you pick your preferred dates on the site and we phone to confirm. A visit takes about 45 minutes, longer for a large detached house. The certificate is lodged on the national register after the visit, and the link reaches you within 2 to 24 hours of it being lodged.
- I let rooms in a shared house. Do I need one for each room?
- No. Guidance states that an EPC is not required for an individual room when it is rented out, because a room is not a building or a building unit designed or altered for separate use. The whole building requires one if it is sold or rented out. Where a house has been divided into self-contained flats, each of those is a building unit and must have a valid certificate if it is sold or rented out.
- My house is stone-built. What does the assessor record?
- Building material is one of the factors the calculation is based on, and guidance lists brick, stone and timber frame among the examples, with wall insulation as a separate factor. It also notes that some features cannot be inspected visually, and that without evidence such as receipts the assessor cannot include them. Where access is not possible, an assumption is made from the age of the building.
- The property is a holiday let on the coast. Does it need one?
- It depends on the letting. Guidance says a certificate is required where a property is rented out as a furnished holiday let, as defined by HMRC, is occupied for a holiday under a short-term arrangement of less than 31 days to each tenant, is let for four months or more in any 12 month period, and the occupier meets the energy costs. Specific cases are for the owner to take advice on.
Book your Lancaster EPC
Order online in a couple of minutes, or call and we will take the details over the phone. Either way the certificate is lodged on the national register and emailed to you.