Change of ownership does not exempt the building from compliance with the energy performance or reporting/verification requirements of a Compliance Cycle.
If a building changes hands, the building owner at the time of an interim compliance deadline is responsible for taking that step (ex. Pathway Selection). At the end of the Compliance Cycle, the building owner is responsible for the final energy performance and reporting/verification requirements.
The seller must provide the buyer with information related to the building’s BEPS compliance status prior to the transfer or sale including:
any information, plans, or reports submitted to DOEE as required by the building’s approved Pathway,
the most recent complete and accurate District Benchmark Results and Compliance Report for the building, and
information describing any progress toward meeting the energy performance requirements.
Note: Some information will be publicly available (e.g. whether a building meets the Standard and which Pathway was approved) and buyers should consult the Building Energy Performance Disclosure available on Open Data DC for this publicly available information. For buildings approved for Prescriptive or Alternative Compliance Pathways, buyers may request more detailed information from DOEE.
Sellers that fail to complete this requirement may be subject to civil infractions. DOEE must be notified when building ownership is changing within sixty (60) days of the closing sale through the Change of Ownership Notification Form and recommends that both the buyer and the seller sign a Change of Ownership Disclosure Acknowledgement Letter.
A new owner may submit a request to switch Pathways as described in Section 2.6 and/or request a delay of compliance, if needed (Chapter 5). Otherwise, the new owner must meet the requirements of the previously approved Compliance Pathway by the end of the Compliance Cycle, without exception.