Documentary evidence

Increase your knowledge or check your processes for best practice when gathering documentation.

Stay compliant with data protection

In July 2020, the BER Code of Practice was updated to outline the roles and responsibilities of BER/DEC assessors in relation to GDPR, data protection and the processing of personal data.

To keep yourself and your business compliant with the relevant data protection regulations you should be familiar with:

the updates in the Code of Practice
your obligations under the data protection regulations within your business

Code of practice and GDPR

Use the Code of Practice as a guide when publishing and processing BER assessments and assessment data. This will help you to understand and comply with your obligations under GDPR.

All information obtained for a BER assessment should be processed, maintained, used, shared and stored in a secure manner. This is set out in Section 10 of the Code of Practice.

Further information

For information about your obligations under the data protection regulations, visit the Data Protection Commission.

Supporting documentary evidence forms part of the BER data file. It's collected to complete and support BER assessments. Documentary evidence has the potential to contain personal data.

Personal data

BER Assessors must avoid collecting unnecessary personal data or sensitive information when gathering and uploading documentary evidence.

Personal data is data that relates to or can identify an individual. This can be either by itself or together with other available information. Examples include a person’s name, contact details, bank details or other information that may be used to identify an individual.

Further information

For more information refer to Section 4.3 of the DEAP Survey Guide.

How to avoid collecting personal data

Reduce the risk of a data breach by eliminating the collection of personal data. This guidance shows you how. If you cannot avoid collecting personal data, you must remove the information before uploading it to DEAP.

Evidence	Potential unnecessary personal data	Guidance
Declaration of Works Form Utility bills Receipts and invoices	Homeowners name Bank account numbers Utility account numbers	Cover any personal information before taking photos or copies of documents.
Photographs	Occupants Family photos and certificates Religious symbols Vehicle registrations	Before taking a photo check and remove any personal data in the frame.

Quality of documentary evidence

The documentary evidence you collect and upload should always be legible. If you are taking a photograph of a document, please check that the image is in focus and legible.

Key evidence

Key evidence is documentation that supports the age of the dwelling and any extensions as well as non-default values. It must be uploaded to DEAP before publication of the BER.

Dwelling and extension age

The age of dwellings and extensions are key evidence, as they are the basis for many default values used in DEAP. You'll find guidance on evidence to support the age of dwellings and extensions in Section 5 of the DEAP Survey Guide.

Non-default values

This key evidence includes documentation and photos to support all non-default values entered in the DEAP assessment. The typical evidence requirements for non-default entries in DEAP are as follows.

Area	Minimum evidence to support non-default entries in DEAP
Building Fabric	U-values for floors, roofs, walls
	U-values for windows and doors
	Thermal bridging factors (<0.15)
Ventilation	Air-permeability test result
	Performance data for mechanical ventilation systems including photos of make/model where available
	Insulated ducting outside thermal envelope
Space Heating	Space heating efficiency (e.g. photos, manual of appliance including make/model and/or certificates of performance) for primary and secondary heating
	Central heating pump
	Designer/Installer sign-off form
	Flow temperatures for heat pumps
Water Heating	Water heating efficiency
	Shower flow rates including presence of flow restrictors
	Waste-water heat recovery performance
	Manufacturer’s declared loss
	Low water usage (less than 125 l/p/d)
	Insulated pipework
	Solar water heating inputs
Lighting	Supporting information where ‘is lighting design known’ is selected.
Renewables	Renewable inputs, for example PV performance certificates and photographs

About this list

This list gives the minimum requirements in relation to documentary evidence upload. You should upload any evidence you believe will be of use to future BERs.
This list does not represent the total evidence an assessor must retain to substantiate a published BER in accordance with Section 8 of the Code of Practice. Refer to the DEAP Survey Guide for guidance on documentary evidence that must be retained, and which will need to be produced for an audit.