The Federal parliament has passed the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Amendment Bill 2014, which forms part of a package of amendments to streamline the administration of the Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) program.
The CBD program requires energy efficiency information to be provided in most cases when commercial office space of 2,000 square metres or more is offered for sale or lease. aim is to improve the energy efficiency of Australia’s large office buildings and to ensure prospective buyers and tenants are informed.
The amendments allow building owners who receive unsolicited offers for the sale or lease of their office space and transactions between wholly-owned subsidiaries to be excluded from energy efficiency disclosure obligations.
They also:
- enable certain auditing authorities to directly provide or approve ratings used in Building Energy Efficiency Certificates (BEEC);
- enable businesses to nominate a commencement date for a BEEC which is later than the date of issue;
- remove the need for new owners and lessors to reapply or pay the application fee for fresh exemptions if there is an existing one in place for a building, and
- remove the requirement for six pages of standard energy efficiency guidance text on the BEEC. Instead, live and interactive online information about improving energy efficiency for office buildings will be put in place.
The expected commencement date for these changes is 1 July 2015.
