MEES rules….where timing is everything

Sometimes the most sensible answer to a problem is: do something.

Sometimes it’s: do nothing.

The difficulty for landlords contemplating the next round of energy efficiency rules is working out which one applies.

Our column this week follows our report that fewer than three in 10 landlords are aware of the exemptions available under the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards.

That sounds like a straightforward information problem. Understand the exemptions, work out whether your property qualifies and act accordingly.

Then I read your comments.

And discovered three clocks are ticking.

The first belongs to the property.

Tricia Urquhart has been examining the exemptions and points to the potential difficulty of having to undertake other improvements before establishing that more substantial work isn’t viable.

Slooky May asks the obvious question: what’s the point of spending £10,000 if you already know the property still won’t make a C?

But before we all put our wallets away, along comes Rob NorthWest-Landlord.

His 100-year-old solid-wall terrace has achieved a C following loft insulation and low-energy lighting costing about £200. He also discovered that secondary electric heating can adversely affect the current EPC calculation.

Tricia has another practical suggestion. Faced with an electrically heated property, don’t simply start buying things. Ask an EPC assessor to model what different improvements would do to the rating. Replacing an old storage heater with a high-heat-retention model worked for her.

So that’s clock number one. Clock number two belongs to the bureaucracy.

The proposed rules have changed before and they’re still evolving. The government has settled on 1 October 2030 for full compliance, while properties achieving C under the current methodology before October 2029 can remain compliant for the life of that EPC. The reformed domestic EPC itself isn’t expected until the second half of 2027.

Which leaves landlords making investment decisions while parts of the rulebook are still being written.

John Adams worries about spending substantial sums now only to discover that a changed methodology requires something else later.

Michael Foley has been here before. He recalls installing washbasins in HMO bedrooms to satisfy regulations, only for the requirement subsequently to disappear. The redundant pipework, he says, is still there.

And then there’s clock number three, the political clock.

Whatever your political persuasion, there has to be another General Election before the final 2030 deadline. Nobody can know whether the government implementing these rules will have exactly the same priorities as the government designing them.

No wonder some landlords are tempted to wait, but waiting has risks too.

Thousands of properties may eventually require work. Assessors and contractors have finite capacity. And, as Rob demonstrates, waiting for 2030 to solve a problem that might cost £200 to solve today doesn’t make much sense either.

One particularly useful comment came from geminihelp96826, who pointed out that an exemption isn’t merely something you declare. It’s something you evidence. Quotes, invoices, payment records, installer details and photographs may all matter.

That may be the most practical advice of the week.

Understand your property. Keep the paperwork. Get improvements modelled before spending money. Take the inexpensive wins where they exist.

But before writing a cheque for £10,000, make sure you understand what you’re buying and which of those three clocks you’re watching.

Do you spend now?

Or wait?

And if you get the chance, could you ask the Powers That Be what time they think it is, exactly, in La…La…Landlord Land?

We’d all like to know.

Until next time,

N