Mon 19 Feb 2018
At Marshall Vizard, one of our responsibilities in letting out our Landlord’s properties, is to ensure that we advise you of any legislation changes and that you are compliant with them.
From April 2018, if you are a Landlord, you will be unable to rent out your properties, unless they have passed an energy efficiency test. Over a million properties in the UK would not pass current regulations, and if yours is one of them, you could be liable to fines of up to £5000.
Without an EPC rated E or above, it will not be possible to issue a new tenancy, or renew an existing tenancy, from 1st April 2018. The 2018 rules only apply to new tenancies, but in 2020, the same rules will apply to all tenancies. After April 2018, if your minimum term ends, but you still have a contract in place, the rules may be interpreted that the continuation is essentially a renewal, therefore it is advisable to take action at the earliest available opportunity, so that you are not pushed to give tenants notice and have a vacant property at the expiry of an agreement.
In April 2020, the new legislation will apply to all existing lets. At this point, you will need an EPC rating of an E or above to let your property at all. Even if your tenancy is already underway and you have no plans to renew, after April 2020, you will need to have an EPC rating of E or above or you could face fines.
If your last EPC rating was below an E, the first thing to do is to get an up-to-date EPC carried out. As EPC calculations are always being amended, the rating you receive now, could be different to the last time you had one carried out. If your property’s new EPC rating is below an E, then you will need to make efficiency improvements to boost it, before you let it out or renew your contract.
Your EPC report will have a list of recommended measures for improving your property’s energy efficiency performance, which will need to be carried out to improve your score to above an E rating. After the energy efficiency changes have been made to the property, you will then need to get another EPC to show the new energy rating.
If you would like us to put you in contact with our recommended EPC contractor, contact us on 01923 296747.
Take action as soon as possible and ensure your properties are compliant by April 2018, to avoid fines and to ensure you can continue renting them out.