How Are You Preparing for the 2030 EPC Requirements?

Over topped the attic insulation, installed digital heating control to a new combi boiler and only just scraped a C rating. Yet I see much worse properties with good ratings it seems so unjust.

We need to take the property back in a few years so I hope we are not forced to re-rate before the hard earned C expires.

I’ve just made another D rated property achieve a C rating by adding some loft insulation, having already replaced the boiler before it was first let. The former tenant had told me that the loft insulation had been increased already. No idea why he lied about it).

As it is, I’m not prepared to re-let the property despite a gross yield of 8% being achievable. Labour are just too scary. So, that’s one more property removed from the PRS.

I’m pleased that it’s going to a first time buyer.

This leaves me just one D rated property left. It’ll be sold when the tenant leaves, probably next year.

doing nothing until the government actually make up their minds about what they plan to do and provide clarity on it all.

I have one rental property. A bungalow which is my former home. The EPC rating was D when I lived there. Since it's been tenanted I have replaced the windows and the boiler. I'm going to have it reassessed and hope for the best. If it's s not up to scratch I'll sell or move in myself and offer my tenant my current property.

I've already done a lot of roof insulation (which EPC assessors tend to ignore). Even with Building Control certificates, photos of the Celotex being installed and receipts stating how thick the Celotex is the assessors usually say because they can't physically see and measure it they have to say "assumed none" in case they get audited. The same is the case in the house where I put 40mm of Celotex under the floor. I even offered to drill a core sample so they could see the insulation but they declined.
I've replaced boilers and heating controls in most houses. Two have solar panels with any surplus solar heating the water. Another two have solar panels and batteries.
The most worrying properties are small leasehold flats in a coastal town. There is nothing more I can realistically do without freeholder consent. Both of them are currently EPC D. Both current EPCs say the highest score they could get with all recommended improvements carried out would still be EPC D.
Right now I'm not willing to do any more improvements until whatever requirements are clearly stated and there is some consistency in assessments. What is especially frustrating is that 2 different assessors will come up with completely different scores and recommendations. Also that a far more qualified energy assessor will then come along and point out that the recommendations on the EPC wouldn't work. One of my EPCs says solar water heating and solar PV would be necessary to get to EPC C. The energy assessor pointed out the roof was too small and there was too much shading for solar to actually work.

Zero-emission buildings by 2050
Currently, buildings account for over one third of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. Under the new rules, by 2030 all new
buildings should be zero-emission buildings, and by 2050 the EU’s building stock should be transformed into zero-emission building stock'
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/04/12/towards-zero-emission-buildings-by-2050-council-adopts-rules-to-improve-energy-performance/pdf/

12/04/2024

ALL buildings, owner occs included and akthough not mentioned gere, the penalties are severe, if you can't affird it, tge state sill do it and send you the bill, i.e. it will bankrupt you, this is intentional, the deprivation of private property by the state has a name Communism, when melded with corporatism it's called Fascism (Benitto Mussolini), true nationalism is the antithesis of both whuch is ahy it's reviled

they way it going there will be no small landlords in the PRS left by then anyway....

We were lucky enough to get a quote and applied for an exterior cladding insulation grant on the last Green homes scheme.
We are totally convinced the whole scheme was engineered and deliberately set up to fail because the way the application was carried out was so very diabolically mismanaged.
It is not possible that any reputable organisation would be prepared to accept the way it was run.
Over the period of about 6 months of trying we had multiple messages to say information sent was not readable, not present on emails, lost
, in hand and all OK, then when we phoned to ask for progress, were told we had to send everything again. Multiple times. Then multiple times again.

We recorded the names and must have spoken to somewhere between 15 and 20 people all different who had no idea of what was going on.
We were determined to stick to the application as a matter of principle once the farce had started whereas you are probably thinking why not give up.
In the end they did approve it and gave us 3 weeks to complete the major job and submit invoices before the scheme ended!
A totally unbelievable experience and people would not believe the detail of the stupidity we were met with if we described it all.

Quick question to those who have taken steps towards EPC C, did you obtain grant funding or pay for the improvements out of your own pocket?

I obtained a grant but it still cost £8k. It moved the needle about 2 points (despite a verbal promise it’d be a C). I was explicit in that the only reason I was doing it was to get a C rating. I complained to the ombudsman and various bodies who couldn’t do anything as I didn’t have it in writing. But fortunately the company who installed the air source heat pump went bust anyway. I’m glad. Upon further inspection their trust pilot reviews were shockingly bad. So I’m not the only one they stitched up. I won’t do anything until it’s law. I’ll watch everyone scramble in the meantime. I don’t think a lot of these houses can achieve a C and they’re either going to have to dial it back or change the algorithm. I won’t lose any sleep over it. It’s just another threat which will spark a wave of sell offs … which is what they want. “You will own nothing… and be happy”…