Title 24 reports for Berkeley permits.
Berkeley lost its gas ban and readopted the Energy Code with no local amendments at all. What the city enforces instead arrives at the closing table — since January 1, 2026 a one- or two-unit home needs a Home Energy Score to be listed and six resilience credits to close.
The energy rule here fires when you sell
There is no local amendment to the Energy Code — codified BMC Chapter 19.36 is three sections long, adopting the 2025 California Energy Code by reference, and still reads that way in a code current through Ordinance 8031-NS of July 28, 2026. The natural gas prohibition at BMC 12.80 renders as repealed, with no remaining text. The City Manager’s November 18, 2025 report agrees: no new City amendments were incorporated into the 2025 Berkeley Energy Code. Form #164, CALGreen Residential, last revised 02/20/26, agrees: no PV, battery or energy-storage mandate, no electric-readiness requirement.
BESO, BMC Chapter 19.81, is the rule with teeth, phased in for one- and two-unit homes January 1, 2026. Before listing: a Home Energy Score from a Registered BESO Energy Assessor, one per unit, in the MLS Property Notes, $500 for failing to disclose. Closing needs six resilience credits per unit from upgrades installed in the five years before sale — five measures clear it alone, each worth six: a heat pump water heater, heat pump HVAC, knob-and-tube replacement with 240 V pre-wiring, a smart service panel, an electrical service panel upgrade. Solar PV is three, attic insulation two. A home whose transferred units are already served entirely by heat pumps is exempt; otherwise $5,000 is deposited, $2,500 each from seller and buyer, the buyer has two years. Condominiums and ADUs are outside it. Berkeley is Climate Zone 3. The CF1R runs the normal route, named on the checklist as Certificates of Compliance for the California Energy Code, on a USB thumb drive for in-person submittals.
One thing that doesn’t change by city: my price and turnaround are flat statewide — $99 first report, $150 flat after, 24–48 hours on your first job. What differs city to city is what happens on the plan-check side before and after the CF1R lands in your permit set, which is what this page covers.
Prices
Flat fees, in writing before I start. No hourly, no bid package, no change-order games — the number on the quote is the number on the invoice.
One honest note
I’m not a licensed engineer or architect, and I don’t stamp drawings. On the CF1R I’m the documentation author — you stay the responsible designer. Nothing about your role on the job changes.
That’s on purpose. I’m not after your scope or your clients. I do one piece of the permit set — the piece that usually holds it up — and I do it fast.
Berkeley plan-check questions
If yours isn’t here, see the full FAQ or call and ask.
Does Berkeley have an energy reach code on top of Title 24?
What does Berkeley’s accelerated plan check cost?
Does my ADU or addition actually need one?
Almost certainly. New conditioned floor area — ADUs, JADUs, garage conversions, additions — triggers Title 24. So do alterations that touch the envelope, the ductwork, or the HVAC equipment, including a straight change-out. A remodel that only moves non-structural interior partitions usually doesn’t.
Send it either way. If it doesn’t need a report I’ll say so and there’s no charge for the look.
Plan check came back with an energy comment. Now what?
Forward it to me. If it’s a job I did, the first two revisions are free and I answer the comment directly — you don’t have to translate between your plan checker and me.
If someone else did the original report, I’ll still take it. Send the comment and the existing CF1R and you’ll get a flat quote back the same day.
Send your Berkeley plans.
The CF1R comes back as its own named drawing, so the Energy and Green compliance documentation the plan set is required to carry is already there when the PDF goes onto the thumb drive or up through Permit Online.