BREL/BRWL: Avoiding Post-Construction Rage

Paul Bainbridge, Technical Director

Paul’s Greenprints   

You’d think handing over the keys on a new home would be the final step. Not quite. Our latest blog dives into the post-construction world of BREL (or BRWL if you’re in Wales) and why missing a photo or form could hold everything up.

To the outside world, seeing a new home make it to completion with the placement of the very last brick represents the start of something wonderful.

The homeowner whoops for joy, and the housebuilder breathes a sigh of relief.

To us here at The FES Group, however, the completion represents a lot of hard work that needs to be walked through, assessed, and signed off before the new owner can go ahead and start loving and living in their new home. We’re of course talking about the fun and games of the BREL document (or BRWL, for our Welsh friends) and the post-construction stage.

You and your clients really need to know about the current regulations with this stuff, because without it, we can’t produce your Energy Performance Certificate. So, strap in, and try not to get too excited about the current requirements of BREL/BRWL, and what it needs you to do.

Traditionally, once completions started coming in from housebuilders (in other words, once the first property on a site was finished), the developer would simply book our team here at The FES Group to go and carry out their Air Tightness Test. We’d turn up with a big fan, and check the building wasn’t too leaky when it came to the escape of air. Yes, we’re trying to make this sound a lot more fun than it actually is. It’s essential info, though, as you know – so stay with us.

With this reading and info from the Air Tightness Test, we could produce the final As-Built SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) calculation and lodge the client’s EPC with immediate effect. All good. We’ve done this for years and it’s always been something our clients trust us to do with professionalism and speed. It’s traditionally always been a case of Air Tightness Test today, EPC with you tomorrow – so one working day. It’s a simple task for us here at The FES Group, and this is just one of many reasons our clients love and trust us.

However. We’re in completely the wrong industry if we don’t make peace with the fact that regulations and procedures can (and will) completely change overnight. To say things can quickly go out of the energy-efficient window is an understatement, so here, for your info, are the changes surrounding the most up to date BREL/BRWL document (Building Regulations Part L):

When the first property in your development is coming up for completion, we’ll need several pieces of information from you, and several tasks for you to take control of. You’ll have a direct point of contact with one of our assessors here at The FES Group, and you’ll largely carry out this reporting over email (unless you’d prefer a different medium – just let us know).

The first thing we’ll need is a Developer Letter of Confirmation, which we can actually prepare for you if that helps – you’d just need to sign it. We’ll also need a list of any ‘U’ Values attributed to the fabrics and materials used throughout the build, and in addition to that, we’ll need confirmation details of all windows and doors installed across the property. Add to that, confirmation details of the heating system that’s been installed. This info should include the type of system (eg, boiler or heat pump), and also the make and model of the appliance. That’s right, all the sexy stuff.

When you’ve collated all of that info, you’ll need to send us the address of the property. The plot number on the development site is about as much use to us as it is to the homeowner who’s eagerly awaiting the keys, so the full postal address is absolutely vital. Number, street, postcode. Simple.

Now, we know what you’re thinking. “We’re bored of sending everything across in letter or document form via email, team. Is there no other way in which we can brighten everyone’s workload by sending, say, some lovely photographs?”

We’re glad you asked, because the answer is “Yes”. In fact, it’s necessary. In addition to everything we’ve already listed in this blog, before we can furnish you with a shiny new EPC, we’re going to need to see six sets of photographs from the construction phase, please. If you can handle this excitement, we’re going to ask you to submit these photographs via our Submit & Track app, rather than via email. Yes, we have our own app – fancy, hey? Missing photos can often prove to be the most problematic of all the requests between developers and assessors, so if you do run into any issues, discuss this with the team at Building Control.

When the photos are received, they’re given a quick check over by our Compliance Team, who will inform you of any issues if there are any. This is all done in a turnaround of one working day during the building process. It’s worth noting at this point, that if Photovoltaic (PV) systems and materials have been used in the build (to provide solar energy as a clean and safe option), then we’ll likely need you to email us with some information about that, as well (such as the MCS certificate or the PV designs, for example).

By the time it comes to booking your Air Tightness Test and having us come to you with our big fan, all of what we’ve stated above needs to have already been sorted. If that’s not the case, then there’ll be a delay with the production and presentation of your EPC, which just winds everyone up, if we’re honest. You can understand that with all the added paperwork involved, getting things done in our usual one-day turnaround is a little unrealistic by this point, so with this in mind, we ask all of our clients to plan for two days before aiming to hand keys over to the new homeowner. Two days. Still pretty damn efficient, if you ask us.

When everything’s come through to us and is completed, your assessor here at The FES Group will produce your SAP to show energy efficiency, and will then pull everything together to form the As-Built BREL/BRWL document. We’ll lodge for the EPC having prepared the package of documents containing the Developer Letter of Confirmation, ‘U’ Values, Confirmation of Doors and Windows, Confirmation of Heating System, Construction Phase Photographs, Air Tightness Testing, and PV certification (if applicable). Note that we’ll only pull together information we’ve been sent or had a hand in assessing or sorting ourselves. We don’t supply any information sent by a third party.

Over the following two days, we’ll work efficiently as standard, but we’ll have to hold a certain amount of faith in you as our wonderful clients to be just as on the ball with the admin and to keep things moving. Simply sign to declare the As-Built BREL/BRWL as all present and correct when you receive it, and get it back to us so that we can do our thing (that ‘thing’ being to get on with producing your much sought-after EPC).

And then? You can upload everything to the NHBC and hand the keys across to your new homeowner. It’s done!

Yes, this change to the regulations is a lot more back-and-forth and admin-heavy than any of us have been used to in previous years, but it’s where we are. It does take more time, but we look after our clients at all stages, so if at any point in those 48 hours or the post-construction stage in general you need us, just call. At The FES Group, we’re confident that the more we enter into this way of working, the easier it’ll become for everything.

Who knows, maybe even one day we’ll be able to get all of this boxed off back in one working day again.