Guide
What does a TM44 inspection cost, and what moves the price?
Updated
Assessors set their own fees, so any site printing a single national price has invented it. What is knowable is the shape of the pricing, and that is enough to stop you comparing quotes that are not comparable.
Why no price appears on this page
The inspection fee is a commercial matter between you and an accredited assessor. Gov.uk fixes the penalties in the regulations, but it publishes no fee for the inspection itself, and there is no national dataset of assessor charges we could honestly average. Publishing a made up range would make your quotes harder to judge, not easier. So here is the driver list instead, followed by the two lines that make quotes comparable.
What assessors price on
| Driver | Why it moves the price | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Number of indoor units and terminals | The inspection is a per unit survey, so 40 cassettes is a longer day than one chiller | A price banded by unit count, not a flat building price |
| System type | A chiller and air handling plant needs different competence and time from a room by room split survey | Confirmation the assessor is accredited for the system class you actually have |
| Floor area and building complexity | Access to ceiling voids, plant rooms and roof plant is the slow part of the day | Whether roof or void access, and any permits, are inside the fee |
| Quality of your records | Schedules, capacities and commissioning data missing means the assessor measures and reconstructs on site | A lower price if you supply an asset list and O and M manuals up front |
| Number of sites and geography | Travel and mobilisation dominate small single site jobs and disappear across a portfolio | A portfolio rate with a mobilisation line shown separately |
| Report lodgement | The report only carries a valid reference number once lodged on the Energy Performance of Buildings Register | Confirmation that lodgement and the register fee are included, not extra |
| Out of hours or occupied premises | Retail and hospitality often need early, late or weekend attendance | The out of hours uplift stated as a figure, not as a policy |
| Extras bundled in | Some assessors quote an inspection alongside an EPC, F gas work or a maintenance contract | The inspection priced on its own line so you can compare like with like |
Two lines that make quotes comparable
- How many units, exactly, are in the fee? The most common gap between a cheap quote and an expensive one is unit count assumptions, not hourly rate.
- Is lodgement included? Gov.uk states that reports produced on or after 6 April 2012 must contain a valid reference number, and that this number can only be generated once the report has been lodged on the Energy Performance of Buildings Register. A report that is not lodged is not the thing you are buying.
The cost of not having one
Gov.uk states the penalty for failing to have an air conditioning inspection report is fixed in the regulations and is currently £300, with a further penalty fixed at £200 for failing to give a Trading Standards Officer a copy within seven days of a request. Those are per system figures against a building, not a portfolio settlement, which is why multi-site estates treat this as a scheduling problem rather than a one off purchase. More on that in the penalties guide.
Fees are set by individual assessors and vary by region, unit count and portfolio size. The only honest number is a quote for your building: get quotes and compare them on unit count and lodgement, not on the headline.