Under recent amendments to Montgomery County’s Energy Benchmarking and Performance Standards Law, residential and non-residential buildings in the County - including buildings in Rockville and Gaithersburg - that are 25,000 gross square feet (GSF) and greater must now benchmark and report building profile and energy data to the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection.

Effective Aug. 1, 2022, these building types must begin reporting to the County per the following schedule:

• Non-Residential Buildings 25,000 to 50,000 GSF and previously exempted buildings such as warehouses and manufacturing facilities
• Benchmarking report deadline is June 1, 2023
• Multifamily Residential and Mixed-Use Buildings 250,000 GSF and greater
• Benchmarking report deadline is June 1, 2023
• Multifamily Residential and Mixed-Use Buildings 25,000 to 250,000 GSF
• Benchmarking report deadline is June 1, 2024

Prior to the amendments, only non-residential buildings 50,000 GSF or greater were required to submit a report on energy benchmarking performance.

The amendments also require a seller of a building subject to the reporting requirement to disclose to the prospective buyer that the building is subject to energy performance standards and provide the following information to prospective buyers before execution of a sales contract:

• the benchmarking property record from the benchmarking tool
• documentation of data verification
• performance baseline
• interim and final performance standards
• the building performance improvement plan

Failure to provide the requested information to a prospective buyer can result in issuance of a civil citation to the seller.

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