Five Warnings for 2018 – #1 The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards

by Property118.com News Team

9:38 AM, 19th December 2017, About 7 years ago 2

Text Size

A short series from landlord & tenant lawyer Tessa Shepperson on things you need to watch out for.

1 – Do you rent out property on an assured shorthold tenancy?

If you rent out property it will almost certainly be an AST. Even you think it is a license it may not be.

2 – Does your property need an Energy Performance Certificate?

Most rented properties do. The main exceptions being rooms in shared houses.

Was your answer to these two questions ‘yes’?

If so – if your EPC did not give your property a rating of E or above, you could be in trouble. As new rules are coming in on 1st April which will require an E rating or above for all new tenancies. Unless exceptions apply.

Dealing with the new rules

Double check your rating

The first thing to do is to check what rating you really have. If your property has an F rating and the EPC was done quite a few years ago, then it may be worth getting it done again.

You may find you have a different result as the methodologies underpinning the EPC calculations do change from time to time.

See if you can claim an exemption

If your rating is F or less, you then need to check whether you can get funding. You will only be required to upgrade your property if funding is available. If it is not available, then you will be able to claim an exemption.

Other situations where you may be able to claim an exemption include:

If you have done all the upgrades you can, and the property is still sub standard
If the works require a third-party consent (e.g. from your freeholder or from the tenant who may not allow you to enter to do the works) which consent has not been provided – and you have made reasonable efforts to obtain the consent
If the recommended works would devalue the property by more than 5%

NB This is not a complete list.

Note that you will need to have some sort of documentary proof to prove the exemption.

You will then need to register the exemption with the National PRS Exemptions Register, which will then protect you, in most cases, for five years.

In Conclusion

This is a very brief overview. In all cases you need to check the government guidance which sets everything you need to know out in detail.

But be aware that you should either have done the upgrade work (or at least started it), or have registered a valid exemption by 1st April 2018.

Or you could get fined …

Tessa Shepperson

Tessa is a lawyer specialising in landlord & tenant law and runs the popular Landlord Law online service for landlords.

NB Get more help in Tessa’s 2018 January Mystery Box Giveaway.

Share This Article

Comments

Jireh Homes

10:32 AM, 19th December 2017, About 7 years ago

As Tessa has noted with changes over time in the SAP methodology, an "old" EPC rating of an E may once renewed after the 10 year expiry fall to an F, particularly if borderline on the 0-100 scale. So to avoid any nasty shocks do not leave renewal to the last moment. Allan

Report Comment Reply

John Frith

13:28 PM, 23rd December 2017, About 7 years ago

The article states:
"But be aware that you should either have done the upgrade work (or at least started it), or have registered a valid exemption by 1st April 2018.

Or you could get fined …"

Surely this should have read "................ a valid exemption PRIOR TO THE FIRST LET OF THE PROPERTY AFTER 1st April 2018."

Report Comment Reply

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

Continue with Facebook

Continue with Twitter

Username/Email Address

Password

Remember Me

Forgotten your password?

Don't have an account? Sign Up

“Account”	means an account required to access and/or use certain areas and features of Our Site;
“Cookie”	means a small text file placed on your computer or device by Our Site when you visit certain parts of Our Site and/or when you use certain features of Our Site. Details of the Cookies used by Our Site are set out in section 13, below;
“Cookie Law”	means the relevant parts of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003;
“personal data”	means any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means personal data that you give to Us via Our Site. This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in the EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”); and
“We/Us/Our”	Means Property118 Ltd , a limited company registered in England under company number 10295964, whose registered address is 1st Floor, Woburn House, 84 St Benedicts Street, Norwich, NR2 4AB.

Name of Cookie	Purpose	Strictly Necessary
JSESSIONID	Used only to collect performance data, with any identifiable data obfuscated	No
__cfduid	This cookie is strictly necessary for Cloudflare's security features and cannot be turned off.	Yes

Name of Cookie	First / Third Party	Provider	Purpose
__utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmt, __utmz	First	Google	Helps to understand how their visitors engage with our website
_fbp	First	Facebook	Helps to understand how their visitors engage with our website