Energy performance certificate exemptions: which buildings are exempt — and what ends in 2027

Anyone who wants to sell or newly let a house quickly hears the sentence: “An exemption applies to your building.” Sometimes it is true. This article is aimed at owners of a residential building who want to know whether their case really is one — and the answer is narrower than expected: the exemptions are found in three places in the Act, they are listed exhaustively, and the best known of them expires on 31 December 2026.

The article goes through the cases one by one — listed building, small building, holiday home, demolition, vacancy, owner-occupation — gives the legal reference for each and says what changes on 1 January 2027. The duty itself is not the subject here: which occasions trigger it and when you have to present the certificate is explained in when an energy performance certificate is mandatory.

#Which buildings are exempt from the energy performance certificate duty?

Exempt are small buildings with a heated usable floor area of no more than 50 square metres and — until 31 December 2026 — listed buildings (Baudenkmäler).1 In addition there are the buildings that the Building Modernisation Act (Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz, GModG) does not cover in the first place. These are three different levels, and they are regularly mixed up.

The first level is the basic scope. The Act applies only to buildings that, according to their intended purpose, are heated or cooled using energy (§ 2 (1) GModG).2 A cold garage, an unheated barn or a garden shed without heating are therefore not an exemption — they are not within the scope in the first place.

The second level is § 2 (2). There the Act lists nine groups of buildings to which it does not apply — with a single counter-exception: §§ 74 to 78 on the inspection of air-conditioning systems remain applicable.

The third level is in the certificate rules themselves, in § 79 (4). It covers only two cases, and their reach differs: for the small building the whole of Part 5 of the Act falls away, including the mandatory details in property advertisements. For the listed building only paragraphs 3 to 7 of § 80 fall away — issuing, presenting, handing over and displaying on sale and letting.

#Does the exemption for listed buildings apply automatically?

Yes — and that is why there is no application procedure for it. § 79 (4) sentence 2 GModG simply provides: “§ 80 (3) to (7) shall not apply to a listed building.”1 Anyone who wants to apply for an “exemption from the energy performance certificate” is looking for a form that does not exist. The exemption takes effect by itself as long as the building is a listed building.

But everything hinges on exactly that. The Act defines “listed building” as “a building or group of buildings protected under state law” (§ 3 (1) no. 3 GModG).3 The federal government therefore only says that state law is decisive — and the federal states handle this differently. In Bavaria the list of monuments is kept for information only; protection there does not arise from the entry but from the Act — a house can be protected without being on the list.8 In North Rhine-Westphalia it is the other way round: listed buildings are subject to the Monument Protection Act only “upon entry in the list of monuments”, and without an entry there is consequently no energy performance certificate exemption either.9

Nationwide, a clarification by the federal government also applies: a building that is not itself a listed building but belongs to a monument ensemble protected under state law likewise counts as a listed building and is therefore exempt.5

And then there is the calendar. On 1 January 2027 § 79 (4) is replaced entirely. The new version names only buildings of the federal government and of alliance defence, and small buildings; listed buildings are no longer included.6 The explanatory memorandum to the government bill also says why: “The exemption for listed buildings was deleted in the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2024/1275.”7 Anyone who sells or newly lets a listed building from 2027 therefore needs an energy performance certificate (Energieausweis) like anyone else.

#Small building under 50 square metres: which area counts?

What is decisive is not the living space (Wohnfläche) but the usable floor area — for a residential building the usable floor area (Gebäudenutzfläche) under DIN V 18599, that is, exclusively the area that is heated or cooled (§ 3 (1) nos. 10 and 26 GModG).3 Living space under the Living Space Ordinance (Wohnflächenverordnung) is a separate, third term in the same section and is not meant here.

How far apart the two can be is stated by the Act itself: if the usable floor area is not known, for residential buildings with up to two residential units and a heated basement it may be set at a flat 1.35 times the living space, and otherwise at 1.2 times (§ 82 (2) GModG).10

From 2027 one detail decides about one square metre: until 31 December 2026 a small building is one with “no more than 50 square metres of usable floor area”, from 1 January 2027 one with “less than 50 square metres”.6 Exactly 50.0 square metres are exempt today and will then no longer be. Many explanatory pages on the web already present the future version as current law.

#Holiday home, weekend house, letting via platforms — duty or not?

What is exempt is not “the holiday home” but the residential building that is intended for a period of use of less than four months a year (§ 2 (2) no. 8 (a) GModG).2 Alternatively, letter (b) applies: limited annual use, and the energy consumption to be expected for it is below 25 per cent of the consumption for year-round use. So what matters is the intended purpose of the building, not the occupancy in a single year — and certainly not the description in the advertisement.

If the exemption does not apply, according to the federal government’s official questions and answers the type of contract decides: with a pure tenancy agreement the duty to present remains. With a mixed contract — an accommodation contract with services such as cleaning, bed linen or breakfast — no energy performance certificate is required according to the official explanatory memorandum to the predecessor provision.5 The line therefore runs between tenancy and accommodation, not between holiday and living. Anyone who lets via a platform should know which contract they are actually concluding there.

A piece of good news: § 2 is not touched by the changes on 1 January 2027.6 The exemptions for holiday homes and for temporary buildings of up to two years continue to apply unchanged — unlike the one for listed buildings.

#Demolition, vacancy, owner-occupation: when does the duty really fall away?

Three of the most frequently cited “exemptions” are not in any section, and they work for quite different reasons.

Owner-occupation is not an exemption but the absence of an occasion. § 80 (3) GModG links the duty to sale, creation of a heritable building right, letting, leasing and leasing arrangements.4 Anyone who stays living there triggers nothing. There is a limit to this: after completion of a new building an energy performance certificate must be issued, and § 80 (1) does not make this duty dependent on later use.4

Demolition is a matter of interpretation, not of statutory text. If a building is sold with a view to imminent demolition, an energy performance certificate would, according to the official explanatory memorandum to the predecessor provision, obviously defeat its purpose.5 The federal government draws a clear line here, however: the need for renovation, vacancy and a change of use planned after the sale are expressly not sufficient — the duty remains in those cases.

Compulsory auction falls outside, because the knock-down under § 90 of the Act on Compulsory Auctions (Zwangsversteigerungsgesetz, ZVG) confers ownership by sovereign act and is therefore not a sale within the meaning of § 80 (3).5 For a later private resale the normal duty applies. The situation is similar for the allocation of a service flat that does not establish a tenancy.

#Who decides in case of doubt, and what happens if the exemption does not apply?

Neither the owner nor the issuer decides on the exemption; in the event of a dispute it is the authority responsible under state law. The federal government puts it unambiguously: interpreting the Act is, as part of its enforcement, a matter for the federal states, and in case of doubt the responsible state authority decides in the individual case whether presentation is required.5 Which body that is, each state determines itself.12 If the exemption does not apply, the lack of a certificate is an administrative offence; the offences and maximum amounts are set out in fines relating to the energy performance certificate.

Two things remain with you even if the exemption applies. The property advertisement: for the listed building only § 80 is exempted, not § 87 — and that requires the mandatory details as soon as an energy performance certificate exists for the building.15 For a voluntarily prepared certificate that means: the figures go into the advertisement. For the small building, by contrast, the whole of Part 5 falls away and with it this duty. The duty to inform: listed status attaches to the property, and the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) has classified it as a possible material defect about which the seller must inform (judgment of 19 March 2021, V ZR 158/19). The exemption relieves you of a document, not of providing information about the building — what else you owe on a sale is explained in energy performance certificate on sale and letting.

#Is an energy performance certificate worthwhile even though you do not need one?

In three situations, yes. For a listed building, because from 2027 you will need one anyway as soon as you sell or newly let — and because a certificate issued today is valid for ten years (§ 79 (3) GModG).1 A certificate prepared in 2026 therefore carries you beyond the end of the exemption.

If your case is not clear-cut. Between 48 and 54 square metres of usable floor area, between accommodation and tenancy, between demolition and the need for renovation there is no line that can be drawn from a desk — and in the end the burden of proof lies with whoever relies on the exemption.

And simply commercially: an energy performance certificate states modernisation recommendations where measures are technically possible (§ 84 GModG),13 and prospective buyers and tenants ask about the figures regardless of whether an exemption applies. “There is an exemption for that” is not information about the building. The consumption certificate for residential buildings costs 69.90 €, the demand certificate 119.90 €.

#Conclusion: the exemptions are few, and one of them is expiring

They really do exist — small buildings, holiday homes, temporary buildings, and until the end of 2026 listed buildings too. But they are listed exhaustively, depend on definitions rather than descriptions, and the best known of them ends on 31 December 2026. So check two things before you rely on an exemption: which area your building heats and what it is intended for. In case of doubt, it is not your assessment that decides but the responsible state authority.