Trying to raise my EPC rating as tenants moving out?

Reply to the comment left by mary at 27/03/2019 - 11:20
You won't want solar panels from 29th March as tariff incentives will no longer be available. Without these incentives it is reckoned it will take 70 years to break even!!!

I had an EPC done 9 years ago on a property that achieved a middle C rating. Since then I have increased the loft insulation from 100 to 300mm, replaced all radiators and installed TRV (not fitted previously) and changed all light filaments to LED. A new EPC carried out last week resulted with a rating lower than the last EPC! This suggests the standard has increased and some landlords currently rated as low E, are likely to be in for a shock on their next assessment.

Reply to the comment left by Rob Crawford at 27/03/2019 - 21:26
Hi, Yes thanks, I don't hold the freehold to install solar panels and think we have to wait for a renewable energy conscious government to make solar viable again. I can't alter the fabric of the building, that's why thinking of the storage heaters. Everyone is being very helpful with replies

On meeting the EPC inspector, as you shake his hand, have a folded £50 note in your palm. Discreetly transfer the note to his. That should solve your problem.

Check that the EPC calculation adds in the benefit of being sandwiched between two other properties. I had a Victorian flat and a Georgian flat reassessed a couple of years ago and they both jumped up a rating to C as the previous EPC inspector had missed this out. They're both 50% double glazed so I suspect that double glazing doesn't make as big a difference to the rating as you might expect. As others have said, LED lights throughout help and for very little cost.

Conversely, a year later I had an EPC done for a Victorian cottage in the country that had had walls insulated [by insurance after a previous tenant had inadvertantly set fire to the house], upgraded to fully double glazed and loft insulation to 300mm and the same inspector only gave it a D.

I was a G rating and now a D.
Fit dual rate supply meter and use clock for overnight water heating.

Fit Quantum or Elnur HHR storage heaters and job done.

There are schemes available for all electric houses but the choices is yours how you meet EPC conditions.

There is firm in Bridgnorth who supply the heaters ver cheaply

Have you considered using a different EPC company. I own one of 73 flats in a complex that was built in the 70's and there is various heating in the units from night store to electric central heating (there is no gas). The freehold is owned by the leaseholders and I sit on the board. All the flats are of identical construction, but we have found owners obtain EPC's from D down to F depending on the company they used. When I looked into this deeper with our preferred agent, he tells me that there is no fixed guidance on EPC's, it often depends on interpretation by people who are not surveyors, but have just undertaken a 3 day training course. May be worth you looking on Rightmove at similar properties to yours, and then examining the EPC to find out who completed it and ask them in to advise.

Under ECO3 the EPC rating of a property in the PRS must be E or above to get funding, even with your tenant on benefits. Does your local authority have a Flexible Eligibility Statement of Intent? They may be able to help. Ideally need the freeholder to move to a ground source heat pump- but that is hardly a quick fix.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Maguire at 28/03/2019 - 08:23
Hi,
Thanks, good point