Since 1st October 2015 there has been a requirement of Landlords to provide their Tenant with a copy of an EPC at the start of any tenancy. The government then announced in July 2017 their plans to bring in rules preventing Landlords from renting out inefficient homes.
The first stage of these changes came into force on 1st April 2018. The first stage effects all new tenancies granted from this date onwards. A Landlord must not grant a new tenancy where the energy performance certificate (EPC) is below the minimum level of efficiency for private rented properties. Any EPC with a rating of F or G is non-compliant with the new legislation and a new tenancy cannot be granted until the necessary improvements are made to bring the rating up to at least an E.
The legislation then takes effect for all existing tenancies from 1st April 2020 meaning if your property is currently let out with an EPC rating or F or G you have until this date to bring the rating up to at least at E. If the improvements are not made before 1st April 2020 and your Tenant is still residing at the property, the legislation states you must not continue to let the property meaning you could find yourself in a situation where you must serve your Tenant notice which no Landlord would want.
The local authority can choose which functions they will be using to enforce the regulations. They may place this in the hands of trading standards or environmental health officers. If a Landlord is found to be letting a property that doesn’t comply with these regulations then the local authority could serve a compliance notice requiring that the necessary works are undertaken to make the property compliant.
Landlords could face fines of up to £4000 in cases of extreme compliance.
At Oakfield Estate Agents we are organising a great deal of works on behalf of our Landlords to ensure any required works are carried out to bring their properties to an E rating or above. This is another reason why more and more Landlords are taking up our fully managed service as we deal with all these matters on their behalf taking yet more of the stress out of renting.
Neil Newstead, FARLA MNAEA MIRPM
CEO – Oakfield Estate Agents