Energy Crisis - few landlords know of EPC legal changes

I dare say that the 85% don’t read Landlord Today…..

I say again, the end of the PRS is nigh!

• Theodor Cable
• 11 January 2022 15:57 PM

And what is this Govt. going to do if all those PRS houses are unoccupied?

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There have been no changes to the EPC requirements since EPC E became mandatory everything else is a proposal! The bill has not yet been published and although it is likely that EPC C will be a requirement by 2026 & 2028 it is not law yet. The claim from Shawbrook Bank as stated here is misleading and factually incorrect.

• Grumpy Doug
• 11 January 2022 09:31 AM

Beat me to it! I do despair about this being reported as fact when it's still at proposal stage. However the publicity doesn't do too much harm as landlord responses are largely negative and usually along the lines of "I'm bailing out/raising rents/moving to holiday lets" and so on. Maybe the dozy politicians and civil servants may take note and hang fire or dilute as appropriate. I live in hope!!
If it does go through (as I suspect it will) they however have no excuses for the consequences of their actions - my MP for one has received more than one email from me on this one

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The expectation of this Government that LL will spend the money required, assuming the improvements can be made (many cant with tenants in situ) is ludicrous. The step change is too great and in many cases almost impossible given the age of the housing stock. They are just going to wreck the PRS. Reduced rentals will increase rents and tenants will pay. Well done Boris! Find someone else to hit your green targets.

An EPC score is total pot luck. Properties can gain or lose points for no apparent reason.

One of mine was F25 in November 2018 when an estate agent listed it, then G14 in January 2020 when I got my regular assessor to advise how best to improve it. Nothing had changed in that time. It still had no insulation, single glazing, no heating, etc.

Another one was E48 in January 2011 when an estate agent listed it, then D67 in January 2022. Very little has changed. It still has the same ancient night storage heater. The first assessor failed to spot the cavity wall insulation but that's about the only difference.
Even though replacing the storage heater would bring it up to a C rating it isn't on the list of recommendations, whereas a gas central heating system at 5 times the cost is. The other recommendation was solid floor installation which could only be done if I evicted the tenant.

Another one was D57 in December 2008, then E47 in December 2015 even though the roof had been insulated between those dates.

So with such discrepancies in the assessment process and incomplete lists of recommendations how are we supposed to know what to do? Should we just have multiple assessments done until we get one we like?

At the very least assessors need to give us a full list of improvements we could make and how many points each would gain. Some can only be done when the property is vacant, others don't inconvenience a tenant. We need the full range of options

• Christopher Housden
• 11 January 2022 18:01 PM

At £65 a time how do you expect to get a sensible thorough EPC. The whole system is a joke. EPCs are still weighted towards gas due to cost, and against electric which comes from renewables, mad!

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Such proposals were/are all in the name of making privately rented properties on a par with privately owned properties which, as many of us are aware, total garbage.
Once again, an ill considered proposal aimed at Landlords from the Government, based on totally false information.
Additionally, as has already been stated, there is a great discrepancy in the actual situation in regard to the energy measures within a property and those actually "allowed for" within EPC assessments, such as insulation in false ceilings and/or in roof voids etc.
I believe it is fair to state that, if 2 EPC assessors undertook an assessment of the same property the likelihood of their assessed rating/s being "in the same ball-park" as each other is unlikely.

Don, you have a fair point here I have 2 Flats in a Victorian 2 Storey house used as 2 Flats since 1917 from Parish Records and Regularised by me in 1992 to comply with Building Regulation’s of 1991 and Certified. The 2 Flats have the same EPC, GF & FF while GF one has to be much warmer because it has original Ceilings plus extra dropped Insulated Ceiling’s through out plus Double Plaster Board.
Also another matter I had to get them both HMO Licensed twice now coming due again (one Selective & one Additional), even though the rules say it wouldn’t need a license if compliant with 1991 Building Regulation’s. We don’t have a leg to stand on, they can do what they like with us.

Hi Mike, They certainly appear to do so. Unfortunately the Landlord association/s that are meant to have the ear of Government must just be in a "buddy buddy" arrangement with those advisers they meet because we are constantly faced with additional impositions and costs - some of which are valid but others have little or no rationale behind them whatsoever.
Unfortunately we mere mortal Landlords will be unlikely to be given the opportunity to meet with Governments and/or their underlings in a bid to provide them with an input "from the other side" because the "system" falls rather short of being a democratic one.

So I dug this out from an article that I had bookmarked
"Latest surveys show that only 2% of homes currently have A and B EPC rating, with approximately around 85 per cent having either C or D rating. Of the 4.5 million private rented homes in the UK, it is estimated that 1.7 million properties will never achieve an EPC rating of C or higher. "
Now I've got a really good bunch of trades blokes that I can call on to do stuff for me, but getting jobs scheduled these days is really tricky, and getting hold of materials is still a challenge, and costly! Add in a few million PRS properties being upgraded over the next 3 - 4 years ... really??

• Theodor Cable
• 11 January 2022 15:55 PM

You are right......Ain't gonna happen!!!!!

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House near mine the windows fell out , one into my backyard !

Still got a c due to low voltage lights . I spent a fortune modernising and got a c too ..

Whole thing is a load of twaddle

• Stephen Hancock
• 11 January 2022 13:15 PM

Believe it or not I actually have a twaddle gauge

The Twaddell scale is a hydrometer scale for reporting the measured specific gravity of a liquid relative to water. ... The Twaddell scale is only used for liquids with specific gravity greater than that of water. The scale was used in the British dye and bleach manufacturing industries.

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Kyra - You and the rest of us...... i feel that for some of us there is no way to prepare, we know right now that there is no way we can reach a C this side of a crazy amount of money, which we are not prepared to pay, so if (when) this comes in ....... the game is up and so are the properties (up for sale).
This is a battle we cannot win, no one likes LL's, we are a group of people that will always be seen in a bad light, irrespective of the actual truth we make great whipping boys, so long as the govt introduce ways in which they can make us improve, then it takes away the focus from themselves of not building anywhere near enough new social properties. Classic distraction tactics.

I see too much Social Housing, too many people on it that shouldn’t be in it, loads more have their name down knowing it will come around sometime even though they could make their own way. I see less than 30m working out of a population of 65m. I see private LL’s unfairly treated and plainly wronged and disadvantaged , as apposed to other housing providers. completely against competition rules.

• Andrew townshend
• 18 January 2022 22:14 PM

The leader (labour) of Norwich City Council enjoys a subsidized (by the tax payer) rent in a council house, so do many union leaders all on £100k + per year, shouldn't something be done here ? but don't hold your breath on this one, cause it ain't happening anytime soon, if ever. disgraceful !

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Energy Crisis is right, not just Insulation either, gas prices crisis, electric prices crisp, now water meters been forced in that’s will be like another massive energy bill the whole idea behind it. Big water Companies ripping everyone off no incentive for them to provide a cost efficient service, they can’t even fix a leak, an A road main leak near me is continuously leaking 10 years regardless of how many attempts to fix. This is a massive not for profit Company, so waste, spend and change all they want no problem load it on,

Andrew - That is unforgivable.
Maybe a letter to a few newspapers??????????
Quit a few would love that one....

In Sandwell, labour run, labour councillors have council properties and second homes in beauty spots !

• Andrew townshend
• 19 January 2022 15:06 PM

I can well believe that Edwin, the loony left are the worst of the lot of them when it comes to looking after number one

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For the life of me I can't understand what all the fuss is about landlords not being able to improve the energy efficiency (and therefore the EPC) of their investment buildings. I, like thousands of other professional landlords, realised this when EPCs were introduced way back in 2008. It not like the Government has sprung it on us!
Over the years I've been spending some of my annual rental income on improving loft insulation and cavity wall insulation. I've used external wall insulation on one of my properties - the EPC up-lift for me and energy cost saving for the tenant have been extremely good.
I've recently installed Dimplex Quantum night storage heaters in a rental flat. I've helped my tenant sign-up to an off-peak electricity tariff, which is a fraction of the cost of expensive 'day time' electricity'. Night storage heaters have come on massively since the 1980s and retain the heat all day whilst the tenant is out at work. It's a pile of bricks in a steel box and is ideal for rental homes where the tenant can be less than careful.
A domestic EPC is an energy COST calculation, the worse the Grade the more my tenant has to pay to the NPower, British Gas (and indirectly the Qatari Royal Family and Vladimir Putin) and the less money they have to pay my rent. It makes good financial sense to drive down the money my tenants have to pay in energy costs. Don't landlords on this Blog understand this? Every single resi landlord mate of mine in the Thames Valley has either fixed-up their houses and flats to EPC Grade C or long since sold their 'difficult' assets and reinvested the capital in energy efficient homes (which can indeed be both older or modern buildings)
For me and other professional landlords this simply is not an issue and not a problem. Relaxing Planning regulations so I and others can build a few more houses and flats for renters would be a far better issue for us all to campaign on. Domestic EPCs and MEES is NOT what rational landlords worry about.