EPC certificates for a property
epc_certificatesEvery Energy Performance Certificate lodged against a UPRN, newest first, with current and potential ratings, floor area, construction age, heating and a retrofit gap per certificate. Free.
Same call over REST
Energy EPC/v1/energy/epc/{uprn}Not connected yet? Connect your assistant. Sign in with your MarketCode account; no API key needed.
Reference
What epc_certificates answers
The certificate history, not just the latest certificate. A property re-assessed after work has two certificates, and the difference between them is the evidence the work happened; a property let repeatedly has a run of them. Each carries the current and potential efficiency scores and bands, CO2, heating fuel and system, the total floor area, the construction age band and a retrofit_gap: the headroom between what the property scores and what its own certificate says it could.
The floor area is the field the rest of the platform leans on hardest. It turns a price into a price per square metre and it is what the valuation model needs before it will produce a number.
The full description, as the assistant reads it
Returns the HISTORY, not just the latest: a property re-assessed after work has two certificates, and the difference between them is the evidence the work happened.
Each carries a retrofit_gap, or null where it cannot be computed. Null means unknown, NOT zero — a zero gap means the property is already at its potential, which is a different claim.
No certificate is a real answer, not a failure: EPCs are lodged on sale or let, so a long-held property may never have had one.
UK only.
Reference
When to use it, and when not to
Use it for the energy position of one property: the band a landlord must meet, the work a buyer inherits, the age and construction a surveyor wants before the visit. For an area's band mix and heating split use energy_profile; for a ranked list of properties with the most headroom use retrofit_candidates. property_summary carries the latest band alongside the rest of the headline attributes if one figure is enough.
Inputs
Before you call it
A UPRN, as an integer. Resolve the address with address_autocomplete and address_resolve first.
- uprn
- A UPRN is the Unique Property Reference Number every UK address carries. Narrow the address with address_autocomplete, which is free, then address_resolve returns the UPRN for 8 credits. property_summary and address_by_postcode return UPRNs too.
Example
An example call to epc_certificates
Use the MarketCode tool epc_certificates with {"uprn":"200003443835"} and show me the result.{
"uprn": "200003443835",
"certificates": [],
"count": 0,
"note": "No certificate found for this UPRN. EPCs are lodged on sale or let, so a long-held property may never have had one.",
"credits_charged": 0
}A real response, captured from production and trimmed: arrays to three items, long strings shortened, volatile keys dropped.
Inputs
Arguments epc_certificates takes
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| uprn | integer | Yes |
Response
What comes back
| Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| uprn | string | 200003443835 |
| certificates | array | |
| count | integer | 0 |
| note | string | No certificate found for this UPRN. EPCs are lod |
| credits_charged | integer | 0 |
Fields observed in the example response above; a field the example did not exercise is not listed.
Reference
Things that catch people out
- No certificate is a real answer. Certificates are lodged when a property is built, sold or let, so a long-held owner-occupied house may never have had one. The response says so; it is not a failure.
- A null retrofit gap means unknown, not zero. A zero gap means the property is already at its potential, which is a different claim, and the two are kept apart.
- Certificates expire after ten years and can be wrong. An assessor's estimate of floor area from a quick visit is the figure the register holds; where MarketCode has measured building geometry it says which source the area came from.
- Bands F and G matter to landlords. Under the minimum energy efficiency standard they cannot legally be let without a registered exemption. The site dossier raises a signal for exactly this.
Usage
How to run epc_certificates in your assistant
Ask your assistant in plain English, for example:
"Use the MarketCode tool epc_certificates for <address or area>.
Show the result and the credits charged."
The arguments the assistant will send, for the example on this page:
{"uprn":"200003443835"}The connect steps for Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor and Claude Code are on the MCP page.
Skills
Skills that use epc_certificates
- Property research: A sourced answer to any UK property question: the right tool for the job, the credit cost stated first, the wording rules that keep an estimate an estimate.
- Valuation report: An indicative valuation for one address: the range, the comparables and adjustments, the index position, the EPC, flood and planning context, and the reasoning, with every figure cited to the tool it came from.
- Due diligence report: A property due diligence report: title and ownership, history, EPC and council tax, flood and designations, nearby activity, cross-source disagreements and the cross-reference findings that join them, with a traffic light.
- Planning check: Every designation and constraint at an address, recent applications nearby and the flood position, laid out the way a planner reads them.
Price and licence
What it costs, and where the data comes from
epc_certificates is free over MCP and over REST, and the two surfaces share one credit balance. Free calls need a signed-in account or an API key and appear in your usage, but they never touch your balance.
Credits are granted on sign-up and bought in packs; the pricing page lists every call.
Sources
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Energy Performance Certificates (domestic and non-domestic)
MHCLG's EPC open data terms · England and Wales
Related
Tools used with epc_certificates
- Energy profile of an areaFree
energy_profileEnergy composition of an area: EPC band mix, mains gas / electric / oil split, heat-pump penetration.Pairs with this - Retrofit candidates in an area6 credits
retrofit_candidatesProperties in an area with the most improvement headroom, ranked by potential efficiency. Defaults to the sub-standard bands E, F and G.Pairs with this - Property summary4 credits
property_summaryOne-call summary of a property: what it is, what building it belongs to,Pairs with this - Full valuation with back-seriesFree
valuation_fullFull valuation block for a property: the value and its range, a monthlyPairs with this - Resolve an address to a UPRN8 credits
address_resolveResolve free-text address to canonical record (UPRN for UK).Same product - Comparable properties6 credits
property_compsComparable properties in the same building or block, with missingSame product
Glossary
Terms used here
- Floor area: The internal area of a property in square metres, taken from its energy certificate or measured from building geometry; the input the valuation model cannot do without.
- EPC rating: The A to G energy efficiency band on an Energy Performance Certificate, lodged when a property is built, sold or let; MarketCode returns the full history of certificates, not just the latest.
- Retrofit gap: The difference between a property's current EPC score and the potential score its certificate says the recommended work would reach.
FAQ
Questions about epc_certificates
How much does `epc_certificates` cost?
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epc_certificates is free over MCP and over REST, and the two surfaces share one credit balance. Free calls need a signed-in account or an API key and appear in your usage, but they never touch your balance.
Do I need to resolve the address first?
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Yes. epc_certificates takes a UPRN, not an address. Start with address_autocomplete (free) to narrow the address, then address_resolve (8 credits) to get the UPRN. An assistant with the MarketCode skills installed does both steps on its own.
Which assistants can run `epc_certificates`?
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Any MCP client: Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code), ChatGPT in developer mode, Codex and Cursor, each documented on the MCP page. You sign in with your MarketCode account over OAuth; there is no key to paste, and the connection is read-only.
Where does the data come from?
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Read from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government EPC register. Coverage is England and Wales.
Does `epc_certificates` change anything?
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No. The tool is annotated read-only on the server, so it never writes to your data or ours and an assistant can call it without a confirmation step.
Why the whole history rather than the latest certificate?
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Because the history is evidence. Two certificates with the second a band higher show that work was done and roughly when; a run of certificates every few years shows a let property. The latest alone cannot tell you either.
Is the floor area on the certificate reliable?
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It is the assessor's total floor area and it is what the register holds. It is usually within a few square metres; it is occasionally wrong. Where measured building geometry exists the property record says which source the platform used for its own calculations.
What does the retrofit gap tell an investor?
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How far the property could move up the scale with the work its certificate recommends. A D that could be a B carries more upside, and more MEES risk avoided, than a C that could be a C.
Try epc_certificates in your assistant.
30-minute call. We'll connect your assistant live on a real address.