Eco Clampdown on landlords and fines of up to £5,000

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 25/10/2021 - 13:05
.....yet we all know if it were, it would produce a shed loads of £££'s from non compliant social providers...

the only thing is, the government knows if they go heavy on the social providers...there's no one else to take on more people who need housing because they will either have to evict them or spend thousands upgrading the properties....

WELCOME TO THE PRS! Why the hell should SP's be damn well exempt?????

Reply to the comment left by at 22/10/2021 - 16:37
...even worse when they get money from central government to supposedly penalise non compliant LL's!

I feel a FoI request will be in order to determine just how much the Council prosecuted SP's over private LL's and how they justify the amount of money claimed for doing this over the cost of fines?
I'd damn well work for the Council for free to do this just to prove that SP's are just/if not more to be held accountable for renting out non compliant properties!

It is also worth noting, that councils take on properties from the PRS (often given over for guaranteed rent by letting agents).
These properties are housed by the council and are exempt from the requirements expected by private Landlords.
Furthermore, any ASB's etc associated with these properties are attributed in surveys etc to the PRS and not the council who are responsible for the residents they have provided.

Reply to the comment left by Tim Rogers at 25/10/2021 - 12:51The way I read things are there will be no exemptions unless there is a defined category (like Grade 2 listed/conservation area) but even then will require you to pay for a surveyor or professionally appointed registered person(?) to look at the property and write a report that says it is not feasable from the building fabric perspective and that any eco upgrades will be detrimental to it. The cost to you will NOT be taken into account in this analysis. At the same time as the EPC C they are also upping the LL liability of spend to £10k from the £3.5k now.
Interestingly enough while they may require a C rating, there is nothing to state that insulation HAS to be the way to up this grade first. While the focus is on insulation for the flavour of the month stuff like heat pumps to actually work properly, as it stands as far as I am aware (someone correct me if I am wrong!) to get to a C is not that defined. It could mean you spend up to £10k on other things like DG units which are expensive but rarely make any difference at all to the EPC points system. Ergo you could show you spent the £10k, did everything to get to a C, but still didn't achieve it.
On a slightly different take - is a LL responsible for actually rehousing a tenant IF internal insulation is the only way to achieve a C? This measure is SO disruptive. What happens if the tenant says no they don't want the upset and upheaval?

I have two Victotian terraced houses and am fully acquainted with the issues raised in this post. However my main concern, apart from the date the C grade may be imposed, is EXACTLY how, and what do you insulate to raise your EPC, and EXACTLY how do you prove it's done. When I did my last EPC almost ten years ago (another is due) I had had the kitchen and dining area's exterior walls insulated to such a standard my tenants told me they rarely used the radiators as the heat from the cooking was enough. The trouble was it was not accepted as it could not be seen. Since then I've taken photos of further insulation but will they accept them I ask myself? And would work by my builder, a non specialist, be accepted anyway?

Do you insulate all walls or just the outside walls which would certainly be easy. Do you pull up all the floorboards or will Ecotec Floor-Foam Insulation under carpet suffice?

What I want is a 'Dummies Guide to Insulating a Victoria Terrace' . Although I feel far from a dummy I need to be sure what I do counts, and can prove what I've done. EPC's as far as insulation is concerned, only says 'Insulate the house'.

Anyone out there have the same problem or any solutions?

The above comments are what most landlords will have to content with, and contest if this stupid policy becomes law. I have also done internal wall cavity insulation but there is no proof of this. Also, the EPC surveyors don't go into lofts so can't see the insulation up there.

I am sure there will be people jumping on the bandwagon and offering advice about how to insulate (for a fee.)

As for the disruption, yes tenants would have to move out. But where will they go? Who will pay for that? Supposing they refuse? Can we evict them for that reason as we will be breaking the law if they stay and we are not renting within the 'C' regulation.

Most Victorian houses can't be upgraded to a 'C' whatever you do. So what will happen? We can't rent them or sell them, or even probably get a remortgage on them. Lots of bankrupt landlords then and empty houses, with more people homeless. This whole policy is so stupid it confounds words.

Reply to the comment left by Yvonne Francis at 26/10/2021 - 12:39
I had flat roof insulation photograophs rejected because they were more than three months old.

The whole EPC inspection and rating regime is not fit for purpose. It needs complete revision and the removal of the ridiculous refusal to take account of any work that the inspector cannot see, so that the result is based on fact rather than fictitious assumptions according to the age of the building. Government also need to re-think how the relative merits of different types of heating system will impact the assessment in the light of the proposed phasing out of gas boilers more or less in line with the anticipated timeline for introducing the Band C requirement.

Joined up thinking by Government is probably a forlorn hope but if this does not happen it will become a total farce and create chaos for tenants and landlords alike.

“You will own nothing and you will be happy”.

What is ridiculous is that if you own and rent out an ex council flat your flat could be the only flat in the block that has to achieve a C.
I solved the problem by selling the flat to the council on their buy back scheme last year for market price, even though I didn't purchase it from them.