Mandatory "green card" for houses and flats

In standard language the energetic certification for flats is called "green card". The certification came to life in 2002 due to an EU directive called "EU parliament and of the council". In Hungary it was established in January 2009. Preceding the law, the then minister without portfolio ordered that from 01 September 2006 building permits for new buildings can only be given if the energetic requirements in the decree are met.

On a European level these are too moderate, for example, with houses the yearly energy usage by the most favourable surface/capacity rate is 110 kWh per m2, whereas in many countries above 40-50 kWh they will not give out a building permit. According to the present decree, from the first day of the next year a certificate has to be requested for all new buildings and for every public facility that has an area above 1000 m2 and is state-owned. A certificate has to be prepared when selling an extant flat or letting them for more than one year. Until 31st December, 2011 this is voluntary though. A cerificate doesn’t have to be done –beside others- when buildings  are smaller than 50 m2, when they are used for less than 4 month per year, when they are designed to be used for less than 2 years and when they are historic buildings. For those new buildings where the authorization process has started after 01 September 2006. a certificate has to be done. In case the responsible technical leader certifies that everything in the building –structurally and mechanically- has been done according to the plans then the energy consumption based on the plans has to be calculated. By used flats the certification has to be done based on energy bills and design. The person who can give a certification must have a degree, must have either an architectural-technical designer exam or an architectural-technical controller exam or has accountable technical competence and has passed the energetic exam as well. Only a two hours wage can be billed for preparing a certification and the hourly pay can be maximum of 5500 forint. Allowance can be billed beside this.
The certification is valid for 10 years and it has such a classified „decal” form that is to be found on the side of household appliances. Arrow A+ is the shortest, while the arrow I is the longest, „C” classification means the building is suitable for the present requirements (when the law changes, the certification has to be redone) By A+ classification the building -according to the basic requirement- uses 55% of the energy while by the worst classification ’I” this is 341% or even more plus. When the classification of a house is worse than „C” then the person doing the certification has to recommend a method to decrease energy.