Should I get a Title 24 report before listing my house?

There is nothing to submit it to. A report is prepared for a permit application, so it only makes sense if you are applying for a permit.

A buyer's agent asked for the Title 24 report. What do they mean?

Ask them which document they mean. The Energy Code has no sale-time report; they may want the CF1R and other certificates from past permits, or the permit history itself.

Are old Title 24 documents worth keeping?

Yes. The code requires them to be left in the building for the owner at final inspection, and they record the energy features the house was approved with.

Do You Need a Title 24 Report to Sell a House?

No: the Energy Code is triggered by a building permit application, not by a sale, so no Title 24 report is required to sell a house in California. What a seller may have is the energy paperwork from past permits, which is worth passing on.

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Why a sale is not a trigger

Section 100.0(a) applies Part 6 to buildings for which an application for a building permit, or for renewal of an existing permit, is filed. Listing, selling or buying a house is not on that list. The administrative rules that go with the Energy Code, in Chapter 10 of Part 1, are written around permits, plan check, installation and inspection. There is nothing to submit a sale-time report to.

That is the short answer, and there is honestly not much more to it on the energy side. A city can run programmes of its own; if you want to rule that out, ask the city, because it is a local question rather than a Title 24 one.

The one place Part 1 follows a sale

Section 10-115 lets a new building meet its solar requirement through a community shared solar or battery system approved by the Energy Commission. A participating building has to stay in the programme for at least 20 years, whoever owns or occupies it, unless it installs its own qualifying system. One way this is secured is an equitable servitude recorded against the property, which runs with the land and is delivered through transfer disclosure statements. The programme administrator must also give the compliance documentation to each new owner once told that title has transferred. If your home is one of these, the buyer needs to know.

What a seller may already hold

For permitted work, the building department must require the builder to leave copies of the completed compliance documents in the building for the owner at final inspection: the CF1R, the CF2Rs and any CF3Rs (Section 10-103(b)1). The builder also leaves operating and maintenance information for the energy features and, for homes, a description of the ventilation system with instructions for running it (Sections 10-103(b)2 to 4). Handing these over costs nothing and helps the next owner. If they have gone missing, see how to find your Title 24 report.

Unpermitted work is a separate question

Buyers who ask about Title 24 often mean permits: was the garage conversion or the back bedroom built with one? What a seller has to disclose about work done without permits is a matter of real estate disclosure law, not the Energy Code, and an agent or attorney is the right person to ask.

The Energy Code comes in only if someone applies to legalise the work. That is a new permit, assessed under the code in force at the time, and the CEC treats legalising conditioned space added without a permit as an addition. Our page on unpermitted work and as-built permits explains the process.

For the buyer

An ADU, an addition, a heat pump or new windows after closing are permits of their own, each with Title 24 documents under the code in force when it is applied for. An old CF1R is a record of what the house was designed with, from wall assemblies to equipment efficiencies, and a useful starting point for those reports. It shows the design met the code on the date of that permit; it is not a rating of the house today. To see what a project will need, start with do I need a Title 24 report.