EPCs are devolved. A Scottish home's certificate is lodged on the Scottish EPC Register, run by the Energy Saving Trust for the Scottish Government Scottish EPC Register, not on the GOV.UK register that covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Search the wrong register and you will wrongly conclude a property has no certificate.
What is the same
- The A to G presentation and the 10-year validity.
- The trigger events: you need an EPC when a building is sold, let or newly built gov.scot.
- The assessment is by an approved assessor and the certificate is public.
What is different
- The display duty. In Scotland the EPC must be physically present in the property, typically affixed in the meter cupboard or boiler cupboard gov.scot. England and Wales have no equivalent.
- No MEES. The England-and-Wales letting floor (band E now, C from 2030) does not apply in Scotland GOV.UK MEES. Scottish minimum-standard rules are on their own devolved track.
- A devolved reform path. Scotland is reforming its EPC system separately, through Scottish regulations and its Heat in Buildings programme gov.scot. The four-metric reform and 2030 PRS deadline discussed across this site are England-and-Wales instruments; do not read them onto a Scottish property.
Checking and ordering
Check first: the Scottish register is free to search by postcode Scottish EPC Register. To order, gov.scot's EPC pages route to approved assessor organisations gov.scot. The cross-border picture, including Northern Ireland, is tabled on the three-nation comparison; the general certificate anatomy on the main explainer applies everywhere.