A council in Wales is warning landlords that enforcement action is on its way for those who fail to meet Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards in their properties.
Officers from Caerphilly council have been told by the ruling cabinet that they can issue fines to landlords who rent property that have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of F or G; with fines reaching £5,000.
The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulation 2015 sets out the legal obligation for landlords to provide energy performance certificates of E or above to existing, new and prospective tenants in most rented homes unless they are exempt such as listed buildings or officially protected.
The regulations impose a minimum energy efficiency standard to help reduce fuel poverty and carbon emissions.
Councillor Shayne Cook, the council’s cabinet member for housing, says: “The council has a dedicated team in place to tackle this issue and support landlords in bringing their homes up to the minimum standard of energy efficiency set out within the regulations.
“Ensuring properties are energy efficient is vital not only in reducing the harm to our environment but also in keeping tenants’ living costs to a minimum and improving their overall health and wellbeing.
“I’m pleased to say that over 90 per cent of landlords in the county borough who have engaged with our officers are working with us to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Enforcement is a final resort for us as a council, but the approval of this approach comes as welcome news as it provides officers with additional tools, when needed, to tackle this issue.”
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Are all their council and housing association properties E or above ? while we are on the subject what about owner occupiers ? they want to protect the planet then all properties should be E or above surely.
What? Follow their own rules? Nah - rules are just for us, not them.
These rules have been in for over 2 years - good to see the Council is on top of its duties to enforce!
Tricia I hope that was an ironic comment.
Absolutely ironic!
It would be great if Council’s were capable of doing something useful instead of issuing spurious fines & penalties.
I imagine Caerphilly will be one of those councils wringing its hands in despair and claiming there’s no property available to rent. They of course will completely fail to see their own role in this. And as the planet temperature continues to rise, they will no doubt lay the entire blame at the door of private landlords while defending their own appallingly bad housing and disregarding the homeowning majority. The hypocritical, moronic fools.
Since 2015 all the money received in rent has gone towards meeting ever more stringent government imposed requirements. Energy efficiency, fire safety, improved facilities for tenants etc. At the same time the government effectively told tenants that they need not pay the rent and made it near impossible for landlords to collect. Now we are threatened with fines for not complying with financially, and sometimes physically, impossible targets.
It is abundantly evident that this government wants to destroy the PRS, biting the hand that houses the population; the conjecture as to the reasons is just that, conjecture. I wish the government would reveal the real reason for its policies for it is leading to massive homelessness. 'Levelling down' is going to make things worse for tenants.
So true - and yet where is the plan to replace the PRS? Social housing has no spare capacity & BTR is too small & too niche to fill the gap. No one in Govt seems to have realised that by taxing & regulating small LLs out of existence they are creating mass homelessness. The very people they are claiming to help are the ones that are going to suffer. First house sold this year, 2nd on the market. More to follow :(
New builds in Wales will have to reach an energy efficiency rating of B. That is a big difference from the requirement of older properties to reach an EPC of E.
So much easier to build energy efficiency in than to retrofit. Particularly when you are building rabbit hutches!
Well insulated rabbit hutches with rooms below the minimum standard for letting.
…. And how long before that “ B” filters down to the PRS 😬. A property that cannot reach an E rating must be bad, but C is an entirely different level.
Being fair they do seem to be advising and helping Landlords to obtain Grants for the retrofit work to be done. Grants should not constantly be targeted at people claiming benefits there are millions of people grafting away to pay for all this who are not on benefits and should be eligible as well.
You can just imagine what little rabbit hutches will attain a b rating , and as for an a
Un-a-ttainable ….
As we all know ( but the government appears not too)…. Keep making it difficult and we will exercise our democratic right to…. SELL 😂.
Dim witted does not even come close.
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