EPC proposed upgrades cost limit?

Does changing double glazing count towards the £10k limit?

Are there any grants available to change double glazing or only from single to double?

You'll just have to wait and see, but if you spend money before there is any confirmation of changes to the current regulations there is no guarantee that it will count towards whatever limit might apply.

As an energy surveyor can I suggest that you save the money upgrading the glazing as it doesn't make a huge difference to the EPC rating. Your best bet to increase the score is always upgrading the heating system, ensuring you have a full set of controls (programmer, thermostat and trv valves) and making sure the walls floors and roof spaces are insulated.
Since the minimum energy efficiency standards came in I've found myself saving landlords countless thousands by offering some simple advice before they spend any money making any upgrades to the property.

1000s of tenants face eviction due to unattainable EPC targets on rental properties.

Example: To obtain Band C on some ground floor flats including one I rent out, will involve digging up the entire floor & insulating it.

So the tenant will need evicting, no rent for some weeks & £thousands spent. Most landlords will just sell up. As I shall.

However this shouldn't be necessary in this electrically heated flat.
But it will be needed due to a serious fundamental flaw in EPC software as it's currently programmed.

The government's aim is net zero by 2035. But EPC software doesn't even take into account electrically heated properties are lower carbon footprint than gas because around 45% of electricity is now generated from renewable sources.

So at present in many cases gas heated flats have a higher carbon footprint than electrically heated yet have a better EPC rating because the EPC software is geared up to running costs, not carbon footprint.

So there'll be major upheaval based on wrongly programmed software !

Now add in this factor.. Legal net migration 500k a year +illegals = 4000 new homes needed every week !!!

Most people migrating to live in the UK move into rental property when they arrive.
So this government are boosting the demand to an unprecedented level whilst throttling the supply with their war on private landlords. Crisis looming

I wrote to my MP who forwarded my concerns to Lord Callanan who's overseeing all this.

Who then replied with a generic letter with no mention of adjusting EPC software to allow for green electricity !

Reply to the comment left by Robin Pearce at 01/04/2023 - 08:25
There is no need to evict tenants. If the tenants want to stay and they don't want the work done they can write a letter. This will give you an exemption of 5 years. I think the idea is you do the work if you want to when that tenant leaves. If they don't leave you repeat the process. The algorithm for the EPC has recently changed on the commercial ones to favour electric and penalise gas and if it's not changed by now on the residential it will do very soon.

Concept is all expenditure from "reference date" would be allowed towards the cost cap, so yes expenditure over a few years should be fine. However the issue is the "reference date" has not been published so expenditure "today" may not be counted, exposing landlords to have to spend even higher costs.

Reply to the comment left by Jireh Homes at 01/04/2023 - 10:46
Exactly the point that has been made over and over again whenever the issue is raised, but it does not seem to sink in.

It is impossible to make a rational business decision to spend large amounts of money based on speculation about what will be included in regulations that do not yet exist.

Reply to the comment left by Robin Pearce at 01/04/2023 - 08:25
Hi Robin
Don’t forget that section 21 will be gone before any EPC regulations come in. Under the proposed reforms selling up is not currently a mandatory ground for eviction. You will, it seems, have to justify the sale in court. You would hope that wanting to sell up because you want to cash in on an asset would be a good enough reason and would automatically not be opposed after all it’s your property. I don’t think that a court would decide that you can’t sell, that would kill the PRS dead. However, you could see that conditions could be applied to any sale. First you might be forced to try to sell with the tenant in place and if that happens and you don’t have the EPC rating you are going to get rock bottom price. As has already been mooted you could be compelled to sell to the tenant at some sort of “affordable” independent valuation like your property was a social one. They would knock off the £10,000 EPC cost for a start. Most likely the court will rule that as after the sale you will be flush with money you will need to compensate the tenant. At the moment Generation Rent are saying that landlords should compensate tenants to the tune of £1700 for making them move. What if you get permission to sell and then don’t? Would that have been an illegal eviction? Will you be allowed to rent the property out again? It’s all unclear, too many questions not enough answers. Maybe I worry too much but the way the powers that be are acting does not fill me with confidence.

Reply to the comment left by northern landlord at 01/04/2023 - 11:53
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" - it can be dealt with, but speculating about all the possible future "what ifs" and how you might address or be overwhelmed by them is pointless unless you are trying to justify (to yourself) a decision to sell up now.

Hi Seething
“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" from the Sermon on the Mount that tells us to worry about today and not tomorrow. If you don’t anticipate problems you might get caught out by them (otherwise why bother about insurance). I do take your point, we do have quite enough to worry about these days but we should anticipate the future. We all fear the unknown. Is a landlord that hopes for the best just burying their head in the sand? Or, are we like the frogs in the probably apocryphal experiment being brought to the boil so slowly we don’t realise we should have jumped out before we got cooked? So Ostrich or Frog? As for me you are right, I am getting a bit jumpy and others have already jumped as evidenced by the drop in available PRS properties.