EPC – A good idea, but?

EPC – A good idea, but?

9:34 AM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago 23

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Placing a property into an energy efficiency category and then advocating or enforcing remedial action. Sounds great – what’s not to like?

Well – if the categorisation is inconsistent and inaccurate then that’s a problem and I believe it leads to millions of misdiagnosis. On the back of the misdiagnosis, a remedy follows and often the recommended solutions are flawed or wrong, making the current system worse than useless.

In medical terms, this would equate to identifying the wrong leg as the medical issue and then performing a frontal lobotomy as the solution.

The current flawed EPC system is a “Sausage” policy. It needs to address fundamental issues before enforcing cost and inefficiency on us all, which will be passed on to tenants.

The current assessment is based on what can be seen. I had the same property assessed by two assessors and got different results. This can be easily seen by checking identical flats or houses and seeing different ratings despite having the same measures installed. One block of identical flats had assessments from B to E.

Recommendations post-diagnosis are also often expensive inefficient or wrong. In an electrically heated house, the assessor marks storage heaters above smart technology panel heaters. Storage heaters use more energy because they store and lose it when it’s not required. They are more difficult to manage use more energy for the same heat when it is needed and are expensive.

How do I know, I took storage heaters out and replaced them with smart heaters which cost less and are easier to manage and maintain the correct temperature where it is needed at a lower cost so are more energy efficient. This is one example, but in EPC terms the rating is degraded. Perhaps the Property118 community knows of others.

We need J4L – Justice for Landlords and sensible not sausage policy then everyone’s lives can be made a little easier.

Paul


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Rob Crawford

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12:33 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

So the government are no longer interested in reducing carbon emissions? Improving EPC grading may well reduce the cost of energy consumption, however, this policy is in conflict with reducing carbon emissions. So investment now to replace storage heaters with gas central heating (for example) to achieve a band C, accepting it will increase carbon emissions. You can bet your life that by 2030 the policy will change again with the introduction of new carbon emission targets. I would suggest we don't waste our money until its absolutely necessary by which time I bet the strategy for reducing carbon emissions has been reintroduced!

Jo Westlake

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14:49 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

The bit I don't get is the mixed messages.
Insulation is supposed to minimise heating costs (which is usually gas or oil) whereas quite a lot of EPC points are awarded for things that are nothing to do with either heating or insulation. Low energy light bulbs or solar panels will gain lots of EPC points but do nothing for heating costs.

As I showed earlier the EPC rating doesn't really impact the gas costs (heating and hot water). Electric bills can be hugely variable but that is usually because of how much cooking is done. It's certainly got nothing to do with insulation in the vast majority of houses.
I know it needs to be a holistic approach but can we get a bit of joined up thinking injected into the whole EPC system?

Of course part of it could be because so many houses currently have the wrong EPC score. At least 3 of mine will be put in a higher band next time they are assessed. As they only need to be assessed every 10 years and we have to pay for the assessment a lot of houses currently have very outdated scores. How is anyone supposed to make policy or ensure adequate funding or tradespeople are available if they haven't got a clue about the scale of the problem?

Reluctant Landlord

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14:56 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Rob Crawford at 26/09/2024 - 12:33
...or we have all sold up and no longer care???

Cider Drinker

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14:57 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 26/09/2024 - 14:49
I made two of mine reach an EPC rating C by simply searching the local building regs database to prove that the cavity walls were insulated long before the EPC Rating D was awarded.

Dylan Morris

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15:09 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

The goods news if you work for your Local Authority Housing department you don’t have to worry about any of this. I’ve heard quite a few discussions lately about these EPC targets for the PRS on GB News, Talk Radio etc. Nobody ever mentions that this doesn’t apply to councils and housing associations. It’s what really annoys me to be honest why is nobody pointing this out ?

Sam B

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15:46 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Dylan Morris at 26/09/2024 - 15:09
I am pretty sure, I read that that labour announced higher standards will apply to social housing to.

Cider Drinker

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17:48 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

A pragmatic solution would be for tenants to choose lower rents rather than more insulated homes. This could be flagged on the EPC and on the property database.

moneymanager

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17:57 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by CWF at 26/09/2024 - 11:22
"Can anyone explain how we are supposed to overcome an old property, except knock it down

You aren't supposed to,you are supposed to end up with a property you can't let and next, a property you can neither sell nor live in i.e. this is,depending on your preference, communist theft or corporate theft of assets.

Beaver

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18:17 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 26/09/2024 - 17:48
I agree. Stopping tenants from renting properties, even if they are at band D, E, or F does nothing at all to help tenants because it restricts tenant choice.

If the EPC system was changed such that it actually meant something relevant to climate change or real costs of running the property then flagging the EPC on the property database would enable the market to sort the problems out. This is because when comparing like-for-like, e.g. one 3 bed semi for another, properties with better EPCs would achieve higher rents than properties with lower EPCs IF the EPC actually meant something.

Tenants who want to save the planet and have sufficient income to have the luxury of caring about it would be able to choose higher EPC properties. Tenants who are less fortunate would be free to trade-off lower anticipated bills for higher rents according to their preference.

Doing anything else is actually an attack on the less well off tenants.

Neil P

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18:54 PM, 26th September 2024, About 3 months ago

In the 60s & 70s loads of new houses were built, as we all know. What is mentioned less is that at the same time a lot of old council-owned terraces were demolished and whole streets of families moved to the new housing. Perfect…old unsuitable stock was replaced.

The problem now is the increase in home ownership. Can you imagine getting a whole street to move? The political fallout from CPOs would probably be too much for any government.

So we’re left with too many old houses not fit for purpose for today’s energy-efficient requirements.

Retro fitting these to get to a C scares me to death, especially on properties where rent is ca. £400pcm. If common sense prevails the spend will be a maximum of x months rent. I’m not holding my breath…

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