The short answer is yes. The longer answer covers the one exception, the decade of two scales ahead, and the times when a fresh certificate genuinely pays for itself.
Last updated: June 2026 · 6 min read
Yes. Every BER certificate issued before 24 May 2026 remains valid for ten years from its date of issue. The change to the rating scale did not shorten, cancel or downgrade any existing certificate. A valid cert on the old scale continues to satisfy every mandatory requirement: selling, letting, conveyancing and advertising a commercial property.
There is one exception, and it existed before the scale change too: a major renovation. If works affect a substantial part of the building, the certificate no longer reflects the building and a new assessment is needed.
Not quite. Your certificate stays valid, but the market around it has changed. Every BER published from 24 May 2026 uses the new eight-band scale, from A0 down to G, with no sub-categories. That means Irish commercial property is entering a long transition during which certs on both scales sit side by side: a building marketed with a C2 from 2024 next door to a building marketed with a plain C from 2026. If you want to see exactly how your own rating reads now, our free scale converter does it in a couple of clicks.
For most transactions this is a non-issue, and solicitors and agents are already getting used to it. But it does create moments where the older format reads less clearly to a buyer, a tenant or a lender who has become used to the new one.
After energy upgrades. This was always true and is doubly true now. If you have replaced a boiler with heat pumps, upgraded lighting to LED throughout, improved the fabric or added solar, your old cert is underselling the building. A reassessment captures the improvement and presents it on the scale the market now uses.
Ahead of a significant sale or letting. Where the rating is a selling point, presenting it in the current format with the new certificate's fuller detail, including energy use, emissions and renewables contribution, gives buyers and their advisers exactly what they expect to see.
When lenders or large tenants ask. Banks and institutional occupiers increasingly want current energy performance information as part of ESG and lending reviews. A new-format cert answers those questions in the language their own reporting uses.
When the cert is near expiry anyway. If your certificate is eight or nine years old, renewing now puts you on the new scale and resets the ten-year clock ahead of any transaction.
The questions arriving this month are remarkably consistent. Is the old cert acceptable for closing? Yes. Does the contract need anything different? No, the existing cert satisfies the statutory requirement. Should the vendor re-certify before going to market? Only if the building has improved since the last assessment or the rating is being used as a selling point.
We have condensed all of it onto a single page you can keep on file or send to clients directly.
A one-page guide for solicitors and estate agents. The new scale, certificate validity, and what to tell clients, written by a SEAI-registered assessor.
Free. No spam, ever. We will only email you about commercial BER updates that matter.
Your BER number is on the certificate itself, and the issue date determines validity: ten years from that date. If you cannot locate the certificate, we can help you confirm whether a valid BER exists for the building before you instruct a new assessment. No point paying for what you already have.
Email us and you are dealing directly with an assessor. If you do not need a new cert, we will tell you so.
The Landlord Compliance Pack (€49) includes the Portfolio Tracker spreadsheet: one row per building, ten-year expiry flags and the renewal calendar calculated for you.
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