Energy performance certificate for an owner-occupied flat: why there is none for individual flats

You want to sell your owner-occupied flat or let it to a new tenant and are looking for an energy performance certificate for exactly this flat. There is none — not an oversight by your property manager, but the way the Act is built. This article is written for flat owners facing a sale or a change of tenant.

It answers five questions: why the certificate exists only for the building, who obtains it, who pays, which certificate type applies to a block of flats and what belongs in the advertisement.

#Do I need a separate energy performance certificate for my flat?

No. An energy performance certificate (Energieausweis) is issued for a building, not for an individual flat — that is what § 79 (2) sentence 1 of the Building Modernisation Act (Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz) says.1 If you sell or let your flat, you need the certificate for the entire building. Everything else hinges on this sentence; the context is traced in the overview of the energy performance certificate.

The Technical Building Commission (Fachkommission Bautechnik) of the Conference of Building Ministers states: “An owner-occupied flat cannot, by its very definition, be a building. Rather, it is located in a building and is part of that building.”6 And the federal government’s frequently asked questions answer “May energy performance certificates also be issued for individual flats?” with no.7

#Who obtains the certificate — me or the owners’ association?

Both, at different points. The common property is administered by the association (§ 18 (1) WEG), and every owner can demand proper administration from it (§ 18 (2) no. 1).8 From this follows the claim that matters here: anyone who sells or lets can demand the certificate in good time — that is how the consumer advice centre (Verbraucherzentrale) sums it up.12

You have to present it yourself. § 80 (4) GModG names “the seller or the estate agent”, and subsection 5 transfers this to the landlord.2 The property manager does not appear in any of these sentences. And presenting it is not the end of it — after the contract is concluded, the certificate or a copy must be handed over (§ 80 (4) sentence 5).2 If the certificate is missing at the viewing, under § 108 (1) no. 18 GModG that is your regulatory offence, not the manager’s — the deadlines are in the overview of the energy performance certificate duty.

The usual route is a resolution: commissioning the certificate is part of proper administration, on which the owners decide under § 19 (1) WEG.9 Whether the property manager may act without a resolution is a matter of interpretation — § 27 (1) WEG allows the manager measures of minor importance and those needed to meet a deadline. Do not rely on it: the certificate type has to be decided in any case.

The last point is the uncomfortable one: anyone who pushes ahead without a resolution has no automatic right to reimbursement. Count backwards from your deadline — it can easily be months until the next owners’ meeting.

#Who pays, and may I pass the cost on to the tenant?

The association pays. Under § 16 (2) WEG, everyone bears the costs in proportion to their co-ownership share — not in equal parts, as is often claimed.10 A different distribution is possible but must be resolved.

You may not pass the cost on to tenants. Under § 1 (1) BetrKV, operating costs are only costs that the owner incurs on an ongoing basis — an energy performance certificate is incurred once every ten years.11 Subsection 2 no. 1 excludes administration costs, and the certificate appears in none of the seventeen items in the catalogue of § 2 BetrKV.

#Which certificate type applies to a block of flats — and how many certificates?

For a block of flats you usually have a free choice. § 80 (3) only compels a demand certificate (Bedarfsausweis) for residential buildings with fewer than five flats whose building application was filed before 1 November 1977 and which do not reach the level of the Thermal Insulation Ordinance (Wärmeschutzverordnung) of 1977.2 From five flats upwards the association decides freely; what to base the decision on is set out in the comparison consumption or demand certificate. On 1 January 2027 the rule is dropped.14

One point often goes wrong: the consumption certificate (Verbrauchsausweis) is not calculated from your heating bill. § 82 (4) GModG requires consumption data for the entire building, from 36 consecutive months, the most recent billing period of which may not be more than 18 months old.3 Longer vacancies must be taken into account in the calculation, and the heating is weather-adjusted. Only someone who has the bill for the whole property can do both. Request it before you order the consumption certificate.

How many certificates a complex needs is decided by the concept of a building, not by the land register sheet. According to the interpretation, independent usability, its own house number, its own entrance and fire walls point to one building; a row of terraced houses therefore consists of several buildings, and two semi-detached halves each get a certificate — even with shared heating.6

If there is a practice or a shop in the building alongside flats, there may be two certificates. That is the position as of 09/2026; on 1 January 2027 § 106 is reworded, and how mixed-use buildings will then be treated is not yet settled. § 106 (1) GModG only requires separate treatment as a non-residential building if three features coincide: the part of the building differs in the type of use, it differs in the building services equipment, and it covers a not insignificant share of the usable floor area (Gebäudenutzfläche).5 The Act names no percentage threshold. A doctor’s practice on the same central heating usually does not meet these conditions — a shop with its own ventilation, cooling and its own heat generator, on the other hand, does.

#What must be in the advertisement for your flat?

As soon as an energy performance certificate exists, § 87 (1) GModG requires five details in every property advertisement in commercial media: type of certificate, value of the final energy demand or consumption, main energy sources for heating, year of construction and energy efficiency class.4 All five are figures of the building — the text of the Act speaks of the final energy consumption “for the building” and of the energy sources “of the building”.

So you are not advertising the class of your flat but that of your building — nothing was calculated for your flat alone. Give your estate agent the complete certificate, not just the class.

#Conclusion: the certificate belongs to the building, the duty belongs to you

There is no energy performance certificate for an individual flat — the subject is always the building. The association has to obtain it, and it pays for it according to co-ownership shares; you have to present it personally. Because an owners’ meeting may lie in between, ask the property manager on the day the sale is decided.