A local authority is urging landlords and tenants to “have a chat” and work together to improve the EPC rating of rented properties.
Wrexham Council in Wales has issued a statement saying: “If you rent your home – or you’re considering renting – ask the landlord to show you the Energy Performance Certificate for the property. An EPC will tell you how energy efficient the building is, and could give you an idea of what the heating costs will be.
“By law, most properties in Wales need an EPC before they can be rented out. The only exceptions are bedsits or room-lets with a shared kitchen, toilet or bathroom, and rooms in halls of residence or hostels.
“EPC ratings range from ‘A’ to ‘G’ – with ‘A’ being the best rating, and ‘G’ being the worst.”
The council statement, aimed at existing and potential private renters, continues: “If you’re renting or considering renting, it’s worth asking the landlord for a copy of the EPC. Rising fuel costs are making it more expensive to heat a home, but living in a property that’s energy efficient could help keep your fuel bills down.
“Unless the property is exempt, a rented property should have a minimum rating of ‘E.’ Any less and your landlord could be breaking the law.
“As a tenant, you might be able to improve the building by applying for an energy efficiency grant, or by encouraging your landlord to apply. Have a chat and see if you can work together.”
Want to comment on this story? Our focus is on providing a platform for you to share your insights and views and we welcome contributions.
If any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.
Please help us by reporting comments you consider to be unduly offensive so we can review and take action if necessary. Thank you.
.jpg)
%20(002).png)
.png)
Join the conversation
Jump to latest comment and add your reply
I will be having a ‘ chat’ with my tenants, straight after the EPC C is certain to come in….. they may not like it though 😬
Why should they not like it?
It's your property so you should be responsible for the EPC.
Tom, I think what Simon is saying is that when EPC C comes in his tenants will either be out of a home or will be faced with a large rent increase to cover the cost, the end user always pays
Andrew, I don't believe the tenant has to pay for the EPC nor for any repairs for the property which are no fault of theirs.
I have rented out properties in both Scotland and Wales whereby I have to be registered as a LL and they both give information on LL's responsibility for repairs.
Don't believe one has to register in England, which is a pity.
Tom
The tenant has to pay for EVERYTHING, in the long run through higher rents, like every end user has to pay for overheads as well as cost of sales and profit margins.
Otherwise the business goes bust leaving both the supplier and customer with nothing.
Look at what has happened to the energy market when naïve customers thought they wouldn't need to pay as much as the cost price and expected to be subsidised by the supplier. It just doesn't happen in a free market economy.
Tom I think you may have miss understood, if up grading a property to EPC C is too expensive the landlord will likely evict the tenant and put the property in the next auction to just get rid of it, if we do decide to spend the money then the rent will increase to compensate the landlords costs, that's just business pure and simple , either way the tenant isn't going to like it
Any grants I find I’m not allowed to apply for due to it being a private rented property.
I’d love to improve the property for the tenants but can’t afford the £8k or there about for each house.
Steven
I've never found any grants worth the effort of applying for them.
Small local tradesmen (not VAT registered ideally) are usually much better value than the big firms who rake in grant aided work at inflated prices.
Past experience with grants are that they end up costing more in the long run than just simply paying yourself to get the job done, as Robert says small local tradesmen not VAT registered best way to go
Still waiting to hear what is required and when, until then I'm doing nothing.
Doing nothing Andrew?
- Sounds a bit like you're getting loads of unearned income to me?
:-)
Making any EPC improvement related works fully tax deductable as revenue expenditure would help enormously. Treating it as capital expenditure means we have no way of knowing if we will ever recoup the cost in any way.
Jo
You can claim replacing old singe glazing with new double glazing as revenue expenditure, so I also view replacing other things - like old thin inefficient loft insulation with thicker stuff - as revenue expenditure.
I put in the self-assessment return notes about what I have done and have never had it queried. but like Andrew, I'm doing "nothing" right now until I know exactly what I must do in future.
Robert - I meant when you got beyond the basics.
Things that give the biggest EPC boost with minimal disruption to tenants like solar panels.
There's lots of middle ground stuff that may just be the modern direct replacement such as double glazing or could be argued either way. Replacing the old 50mm of loft insulation with a more modern depth of 270mm is just using the current method. Topping up the 50mm to 270mm could be seen to be an improvement. The fact that taking out and disposing of the 50mm is environmentally unsound and costly is a whole different topic.
Ripping out the existing uninsulated concrete floor slab and replacing it with a modern insulated one is presumably a tax deductible replacement (but an environmental disaster). Putting insulation over the top of the existing slab is less clear cut from a tax point of view.
Replacing an old boiler with an energy efficient one is fine. Replacing a night storage heater with gas central heating would be a capital improvement. But if you had tenants on whichever qualifying benefits could be a freebie anyway.
There are too many inconsistencies. If they want us to do it just make it all tax deductible immediately.
Jo
I would claim tax relief on anything I was forced to do, put full details in the notes on the self assessment return and wait to see if it gets challenged.
I've never had anything challenged so far in over 20 years of doing annual returns including rental properties.
Robert - it's stuff I wouldn't necessarily be forced to do but may choose to do because it's less disruptive and more cost effective.
EPCs nearly always put solid floor insulation at the top of the list, closely followed by internal or external insulation. Solar PV is usually a long way down the list but is often one of the cheaper options gaining significantly more points with virtually no disruption or loss of space for the tenant. It isn't suitable for every house but is very impressive when suitably sited.
Funny enough, this one worked for me. I'm a student landlord (I've got a thick skin!) and after an unsolicited visit to my home, I applied for, and got, additional loft insulation and cavity wall insulation for all my houses that were D and E. With a fair wind I should get them all to a C. Nice to actually get something back from "the system" - it's a rare occurrence!
There is no point trying to improve the EPC rating until they have issued the new algorithm and decided how to score GCH (soon to be obsolete) and electric (green but low scoring due to cost). At present the system is ridiculous!
Tom - Just to clarify my first post…. They wouldn’t like our conversation because I would be evicting them due to the costs of getting my old properties to a C. It’s just not worth it, cash up…. Move on. Let the council’s handle the fallout.
Like others have commented the tenant ALWAYS pays.
I wasn’t going to put my rents up this year to help my tenants out financially.
But I have the extra money goes into a separate account to pay for EPC improvements. I will continue to put them up every year until I get enough money in the account to pay for the improvements or they move out at which point I will sell the property. But I’m not doing anything until I find out what I need to do otherwise I might be doing work which doesn’t improve the EPC.
Stephen even when you know you could be doing unnecessary work. When HMO came in I was required to put a Wash Hand Basin in every room although I didn’t rent rooms I had to do it for the license which I did and cost me a lot because of concrete floors up stairs made it so difficult, subsequently some years later they decided they weren’t needed and removed the requirement. Since then the Tenants have disappeared the WHB’s because they want their computer there.
Please login to comment