The united kingdom, as like many other countries has signed a legally binding declaration to become carbon neutral by 2035, just 14 years away. New regulations have been bought forward that mandates every landlord to achieve an energy rating of C or above on their Energy Performance Certificate by that time.
To get the ball rolling with this target, Landlords in the buy-to-let sector now must achieve an energy rating of at least an E or above if they want to legally rent their property. Government is also considering forcing the mortgage lenders to publish the energy ratings for the houses they put on the market, meaning if homeowners don’t meet the required certificate’s they may have to pay more in mortgage repayments.
So, if you’re a leicester landlord your responsibilities moving forward will be the following:
- Before letting your property you must check to see if it has achieved an EPS of at least a grade E or above
- If not, and you still wish to rent it out then a new EPS has to be arranged before any other tenants move in. We arrange ALL certificates as part of our joining package, so if this is something you’re interested on call us today on 0116 270669
- This means that, under the law, landlords should spend up to a maximum of £3,500 on the energy efficiency improvements set out in the EPC
- If you fail to achieve the correct grade, the landlord may however apply for a high-cost exemption via the PRS Exemptions Register and still let the property. You will however still be required to make said changes in order to meet the needed grade. If you’re property is listed, or protected in some way, it may be exempt from making any kind of alterations that may effect it.
- If your EPC is older than 10 years and your tenant(s) leave you will be required to apply for a new one at the risk of being fined £5000! To give you an idea of scale, if every landlord in the local Leicester authority alone ignored the cumulative cost would be a little under 40m
What about home owners?
Well, for a typical Leicester property that doesn’t meet the required EPC the overall value of the home could dip and you could find yourself paying more in your monthly mortgage repayments! Not only that but the Department of Business (DoB) wants to force mortgage providers to classify the energy ratings of their borrowers’ homes and put the average into a Government league table, which will be presented on the DoB’s website.
Mortgage providers will then get time sensitive targets to improve their average EPC scores, punishable by fines, meaning this would increase the mortgage costs for those with low energy efficient homes.
If you find yourself in the position where your property isn’t meeting the required standards why not give Arch Living a call for some advice on your portfolio on 0116 270 6699
