10:05 AM, 14th February 2025, About A day ago 22
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It’s been a hectic week for landlords with lots of EPC news – a consultation to bring in EPCs for new tenancies by 2028, all tenancies to have a new EPC by 2030 – all the while there’s a consultation about what EPC assessors will actually measure.
You can’t make this up – and the government is urging landlords to upgrade properties now in time for the new rules.
Do they not join the dots up and realise we could spend thousands to meet the EPC C rating – and then have the EPC criteria change so we no longer meet it?
We can’t commit while the work done by assessors varies so much.
And then we have The Property Institute saying that the EPC plans don’t consider high rise building and freeholder issues. They are right, they don’t. It’s unbelievable.
Will the EPC system become a national scandal as it turns into a cataclysmic event for the PRS?
Most of us are geared up for the expense and distraction of the Renters’ Rights Bill, especially with periodic tenancies and struggling with evictions. But with this EPC saga, I’m not so sure that lots of landlords will simply call it a day.
Spending up to £15,000 on a £150,000 property just to gain a few EPC points and achieve a C rating is financially ludicrous. It’s simply not viable.
I can’t be the only one fed up with being demonised as ‘lazy, greedy and uncaring’ by the government, Generation Rent and the media. Remember, Two-tier doesn’t believe that being a landlord is work.
One of my landlord mates has already said he won’t sacrifice a year or two of rental income to achieve a C rating. And Generation Rent, that’s the turnover, not the profit.
Has a tenant EVER asked to see a landlord’s EPC? I’m guessing not.
I reckon by 2029 – whether this Labour shower of chancers is still in power or not – many more landlords will be selling up.
I’m starting to understand that this Labour government wants small landlords out of the PRS – it’s nothing but the politics of envy and class-warfare mentality. Despite most small landlords having to graft to get through life and probably being no better off than the tenants they house!
While many landlords are prepared for the challenges of the Renters’ Rights Bill, the EPC debacle feels like the straw that could break the camel’s back.
It’s a classic case of good intentions colliding with real-world complexities.
It doesn’t help landlords that the NRLA is claiming that the Renters’ Rights Bill will fail without better enforcement. This is an organisation that represents landlords wanting councils to be better financed to crack down on landlords. Inevitably, they will continue targeting decent landlords.
Government policymaking is a nuanced act in trying to find compromise but all I see is a growing disconnect between government policy and the realities faced by landlords AND tenants.
It doesn’t help that no one in government appears to have had a proper job or real-world experience in doing anything constructive.
The Renters’ Rights Bill claims to improve tenant protections, but it risks creating new issues and building on old problems.
I get why people think having tighter eviction rules will protect tenants, but these will backfire and evictions will carry on. As I have previously noted, landlords will switch to Section 8 possessions, so we must give a reason.
As a result, rented housing supply will fall, and rents will rise. It’s not really a difficult formula to understand, is it?
Landlord investment confidence in the PRS is waning which not only fuels the housing shortage but also undermines the availability of stable, long-term rentals.
The Labour government must engage with landlords and listen to our concerns so we can create a solution that delivers PRS stability, prevents big rent rises to pay for the EPC work and other nonsense under the new Bill.
Time is running out and we can’t go on ignoring the realities of the PRS because not doing so will see the market collapsing – leaving tenants with nowhere to live and landlords feeling very much like the postmasters in the Post Office scandal.
I fully expect rent controls to be the next attack on the PRS – surely, that would be the final nail in its coffin.
It’s utterly disheartening for those of us who have played by the rules, paid our taxes, and haven’t relied on handouts to see our efforts undermined by such short-sighted diabolical policies.
Until next time,
The Landlord Crusader
Dave the Rave
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Sign Up12:50 PM, 14th February 2025, About A day ago
I can’t help but feel the likes of NRLA should be campaigning for all social housing firms and council house providers to fall under the same rules as those being pinned to PRS landlords.
The case can easily be made that if a house needs to be a certain standard to be let out, it shouldn’t matter if it is owned by a council, social housing provider or private landlord.
By levelling this playing field, stakeholders such as councils and social housing providers would have a lot to say about how realistic the proposed EPC targets are. They would argue against unnecessarily wasting capital for political sake. They would also make the case that for some properties in their estates, it simply wouldn’t be viable.
Perhaps I am pipe dreaming, but it makes sense to me.
Reluctant Landlord
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Sign Up13:36 PM, 14th February 2025, About A day ago
Reply to the comment left by Dave the Rave at 14/02/2025 - 12:50
of course it makes sense, just the people who make the decisions don't have any.
Martin Richardson
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Sign Up14:34 PM, 14th February 2025, About 23 hours ago
My properties are all in Angela Raynet's constituency and I have just started my sales journey. First rental house on the market this week. I do feel a sense of satisfaction here, but such a shame for the long staying tenant who has had to go.
Why? Solid stone walls cannot be upgraded with tenant in place.
Rent is really low ans so I'll never recoop my investment. Abd Im 60 now... sell sell sell.
Julian Lloyd
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Sign Up14:44 PM, 14th February 2025, About 23 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by A Reader at 14/02/2025 - 10:30
I know what you mean. How does the NRLA help me? It’s awful and I just delete their emails now, no pony reading them.
You’re right about the councils not maintaining their stock. I’ve heard that in the Portsmouth council housing stock 87% of their properties have EICR older than ten years! They actually stated that their gas engineer has a Quick Look at the electrics when he is there! Are they having a laugh!?
Simon Williams
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Sign Up15:19 PM, 14th February 2025, About 23 hours ago
It's important to understand what the government is saying in its consultation, namely that if you get your property to C under the current system, it's preferred option is that you will be deemed compliant for the next 10 years, regardless of the fact that the method of assessment will radically change in the second half of 2026.
However, its consultation is open to hearing alternative views and there will be EPC lobby groups, for example, who will strongly argue for existing EPCs to be cut short, since they will gain lots of money from re-doing EPCs.
So, we can't be sure that the Government's preferred option will hold good. But it is their preferred option at least. If it turns out that they will allow existing EPCs at C to stand for a full 10 years, I will be locking in and re-doing all my EPCs to buy me compliance until 2036.
Mick Roberts
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Sign Up16:07 PM, 14th February 2025, About 22 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Simon Williams at 14/02/2025 - 15:19
Till they change the rules again. Interim period.
caringlandlord
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Sign Up16:07 PM, 14th February 2025, About 22 hours ago
Do nothing!
I’m going to wait and see what happens and not worry and certainly not waste my money on anything that might not help my EPCs anyway.
If all landlords do nothing a backtrack will be forced upon the government.
Would any private homeowner spend £15k to save £240 a year?
I suspect not.
Mick Roberts
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Sign Up16:11 PM, 14th February 2025, About 22 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by caringlandlord at 14/02/2025 - 16:07
Fantastic words, u sum it up shortly & brilliantly.
Would any private homeowner spend £15k to save £240 a year?
I suspect not.
So why should Private f__king Landlords. And why should Private tenants pay through the nose for this.
Crouchender
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Sign Up16:49 PM, 14th February 2025, About 21 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Simon Williams at 14/02/2025 - 15:19
Change of governments by then as this one term Labour lot will be out by 2029. Thank goodness BUT after they have crashed the PRS economy though!!
Wendy Whittaker-Large
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Sign Up19:04 PM, 14th February 2025, About 19 hours ago
For those of us in the game for a long time(like me for nearly 30 years) new investors and landlords won’t understand how destructive these government policies will be. I’ve steadily seen consistent destruction of the PRS and concurrently national debt increasing, taxes rocketing, choice and freedoms (for tenants and landlords) diminishing and the creeping infestation of socialism.
This is very bad news long term.
There is no point trying to compromise, appease or have a ‘balanced’ approach. How I hate that word!
One day new landlords will wake up and smell the coffee and realise that all their dreams that once were superbly described by Robert Kiyosaki in Rich Dad Poor Dad are now encapsulated in an updated edition called : ‘Rich Taxtaker, Poor Taxpayer’. The government vs the private sector.
Make no mistake, regulations are just masked taxation. Don’t fall for ‘being reasonable’ or ‘making adjustments’.
Because one day you’ll realise that all you are is a government piggy bank.
Landlords are leaving the sector BY THEIR DROVES and this is what the Labour government wants. They want to control and run housing without you or I.
In the long run you’ll be part of the WEF dream to ‘own nothing and be happy about it’.
We MUST stand up to what’s going on!! Not just for us but for the people who rely on the accommodation we provide!
Many of them don’t understand the economic factors at work and think that ‘rebalancing’ the relationship between landlord and tenant is what’s needed. What’s actually needed is for tenants and landlords to come to their own agreements and not to be dictated to by the state about how either of them should agree their contracts.
It’s disempowering not empowering.
It adds huge expense and adds no value.
It will increase costs and reduce choice rather than reducing costs and improving choice.
This is not the ravings of a mad woman after a tough week needing a glass of wine 🤣
This is the call to action of a highly focused and driven individual who sees the industry she has worked in being decimated in front of her very eyes.
And all the while I see Neros looking on as Rome burns.
I’m sorry if you think I’m being melodramatic but I think you should know how vital the PRS is to the people, the economy and the health of the UK. It contributes massively to GDP, it pays huge amounts of tax that pay for the public sector to exist. It provides roofs over peoples heads and gives people homes. And above all, it’s often run by people like you and me - ordinary citizens who wanted to make a difference to their personal financial situation and perhaps also to benefit others.
This is no longer a call for appeasement. This is no longer a call for discussion or consultation. The only ONLY way forward now is PROTEST and ACTION.