EPC rules and the Renters’ Rights Bill will damage the PRS beyond recognition

Average EPC Ratings by tenure (2021 census)…
Owner-occupied 64 (D)
PRS 66 (D)
Social Housing (70 (C)
Clearly, it is owner-occupied homes that need to be targeted first. Many don’t even have an EPC.
The PRS doesn’t rate much better. But why is that?
Firstly, it’s well known that private landlords own a disproportionate percentage of older properties. Secondly, it’s also well known that older properties are more expensive to bring up to modern standards and that doing so may risk creating damp and mould issues.
One way or another, tenants will pay for energy efficiency ‘improvements’. Probably through higher rents.
Private landlords don’t benefit from the massive funds that social landlords can access. For example, a Leeds housing estate (Holtdale) benefitted from £47,000 of tax payers money (that’s per house) to bring the EPC up to an A Rating. That money would have been better spent building new homes for the homeless people of Leeds.
Will £47,000 of public money be made available to private landlords so that similar improvements can be made to the private housing stock? I’ll wait.

Hitting the PRS with a requirement to lower carbon emissions is just part of the Gov's claimed wider sustainability commitments. Politicians have to be seen to make what they think are the 'right' noises and economics, science and common sense be damned. So I think EPC targets, or similar, will stay around, but as 2030 looms it will be pushed back, dropped, or morph into something else.

Unfortunately, we don't make much anymore and import a lot of the 'stuff' we consume; it's the consumer who picks up the tariff cost that's inevitably passed on to them.

The deadline is 2030, ie after the next general election.
We have still to implement the required legislation relating to the Brexit Agreement agreed 5 years ago. So the chances of this date also being pushed back are high.
Do you honestly think that a new government will sit back while PRS landlords are forced to evict thousands of tenants into the council sector?
Do you honestly think that there won't be extensive government funding to help as the date approaches?
The banding will have to change to reflect the push for electrical heating (at the moment gas gets you a far better rating), why would you do anything until a revised system tells you what your 'true' rating is?
If you spend £10k on your property, do you know how many years it will take you to get that back on higher rental payments?
All of ours are a D, we have increased rents in order to raise the money to carry out any future improvements necessary, but I won't be doing anything for another 4 years.

Reply to the comment left by Steve Rose at 27/09/2024 - 12:09@Steve Rose "Do you honestly think that a new government will sit back while PRS landlords are forced to evict thousands of tenants into the council sector?"
Steve, it's worse than that. Unless landlords evict now they won't be able to use s8 to carry out works to upgrade houses. The EPC estimated costs assume a vacant property. How are we supposed to install under floor or internal wall insulation with a family and all their belongings in situ? Many tenants have houses crammed with their belongings so that builders can hardly move and fear a claim by the tenant of damage or theft of the PlayStation etc.
£10,000 (or whatever arbitrary figure is chosen) won't go very far if it costs three times as much to work around the tenant's stuff than if the property is vacant. Furthermore many contractors will refuse to work unless the furniture is cleared.

Global warming ,all nonsense, an agenda by the Elite as the world has been far hotter in the past and the UK's meagre efforts make no sense as China, India and the USA pump out more.Meanwhile this Miliband jets around the world , does that make sense.
Perhaps the politicians will wake up as the streets fill with homeless.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 27/09/2024 - 12:30
Well said Ian, u echo mine and my tenants words.
Some recent words I'll keep repeating below.

Yes it’s a shame that in 2024, the biggest threat to tenants homes is Govt and Councils and the constant retrospective changes they keep imposing.

We’ll make em EPC A if u like, massive mould and condensation that sometimes hard to undo.

Well these houses weren’t substandard till Govt said EPC D no longer acceptable. Tenants very happy with em and the cheap rent they were.
All my tenants had a choice pay £600pm EPC D or I’ll buy you new build £1000pm EPC A and you’ll save £30pm on your gas bill. By the way the EPC D have already got new boiler windows doors etc.

Sep24
Proper thick he is.
Cold and draughty?
Come and tell that my tenants who's got new boiler, new windows, warm home, but UNFORTUNATELY, still an EPC D cause of the way the flawed system works.
And tell them we know u paying £200pm below market rent and perfectly happy, but if we get u to EPC C (which we know that means you'll have to pay market rent £2400 per year more}, we'll look good to the voters for doing what we say.
And we'll keep quiet about how we constantly retrospectively changing the rules after you've moved in and this causes more landlords to sell, but we'll blame homeless on a local level.

Well said, it will just mean landlords sell low EPC properties to owner occupiers and buy ones just over the threshold.

But I am sure it will feel nice for Milliband have 'solved' the problem and leveled down landlords.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 27/09/2024 - 12:30
existing Ground 6 /S8 not apply here??

Costs to ensure the property is empty in order to carry out the mandated works should be included as part of the £10k (or whatever figure it is).

You cannot be prosecuted for not being able to carry out work to ensure you can legally continue to let a property by default if the law does not allow you to obtain timely legal and empty possession of the property to carry this out!

Funnily enough, when the property is eventually empty there is no compulsion to then carry out any work if there is no intention to let it out in the future anyway.

I have seen terraced houses with single skin outside walls achieve a C Rating. I have also seen terraced houses with insulated cavity walls achieve a D or E Rating.
The main difference seems to be the lodge that the owner belongs to.
The system is corrupt.

Not to mention there is no standard for EPC valuations.. The amount of valuers who can't be bothered to check the loft, broke the bannisters trying to climb up, told investors to rip a wall open to see the works done. The Government needs to address all these issues first. Plus I replaced all my windows at home which resulted in a mould, condensation issue that never existed before!