For those that don’t keep up with legislation changes, from 1st October 2008 landlords needed to produce a piece of paper (in fact a whole bunch) that gives a general rating for the energy efficiency of the property you are letting. This pretty much encompanses all properties being sold or let now and the requirement only applies to new lettings so you don’t need to get one for existing tenants (whew!) and they last 10 years before they need to be renewed..
In principle, it puts your property on a par to the way fridges get rated for efficiency.
Good thing? Bad thing?
In the ‘Good’ camp:
- Makes everyone aware of the environmental impact of each property
- Informs the landlord about the changes he could make to improve the rating
- Gives more ‘choice’ to a prospective tenant
- Nice job creation scheme for EPC inspectors
In the ‘Bad’ camp:
- They cost money
- The information they give is, for the most part, pretty obvious (’install loft insulation’…no, really?)
- They won’t make any real difference to the prospective tenant – you’re not showing them standardised fridges that they will pick the best performance one – there are more important factors for properties and no two are alike so the notion of being comparable in that way is nonsensical
My opinion? Sorry, not a fan. It won’t really help the tenant (will they really turn down that flat because it’s a ‘C’ rather than ‘B’ rating..? I think not) and adds additional costs to letting property that nobody needs or wants, especially at the moment. They also can lead to bureaucratic situations arising – for example, I have just let a flat. It was let before so has never had an EPC. It has now been re-let before I’ve had a chance to get the EPC done! The tenants don’t care – to them it will be another bit of paper, but I will have to pay out to get this paperwork when there is nothing I can realistically do (or isn’t common sense) anyway to improve the efficiency of this property as it is in a block of flats.
If the government where serious about the environmental impact of property then they should introduce measures to encourage more landlords and homeowners in general to ‘go green’ (and I mean taking it beyond some weakly advertised minor tax breaks for cavity wall insulation etc). Perhaps landlords could earn further tax breaks for every property they get to ‘A’ or ‘B’ status. I’d be more supportive of a ‘carrot’ approach like this that supports and encourages landlords. Such an approach is also likely to be much more effective in achieving the main aim of this legislation: making homes more efficient.
