Could EPC changes mean another exodus of landlords?

An EPC or ‘Energy Performance Certificate’ is a legal requirement when renting out any property in the UK. This certificate is a document which lasts ten years and only requires to be updated, or a new one issued, once the 10 years has expired.

The four-page document sets out the energy efficiency of a property on a traffic light system basis from A to G, which A being the most efficient.

As law stands currently, this survey must be taken by an accredited domestic energy assessor and a property cannot be rented out if it scores ratings is of E or below.

If there are already tenants in the property with an EPC rating of an F, then the landlord MUST carry out the necessary works, by law, in order to improve the energy efficiency to D or above.

But rules and regulations are constantly changing. A possible increase in the minimum EPC level could see a huge raise from level E to a C which will be debated in October. This is a dramatic rise and landlords won’t see any short-term benefits from lower fuel bills. Geospatial technology company ‘Kamma’ has released their analysis which estimates that 2.9 million privately rented homes (65% of those on the EPC register) are below the Government target energy efficiency grade C.

With 2.9 million homes needing to improve, and an estimated average cost of ￡9,872 per home, the total bill facing the sector could hit ￡29 billion.

This could be a huge change for the rental market and cause many landlords to offload their assets if the bill looks to become a permanent law.

Will we see yet another landlord exodus?

Landlords have been hit with a steady barrage of regulatory reforms over recent years, which has made the process of managing a BTL portfolio more complex, time-consuming and expensive.

Many landlords turn to auction as a preferred method of sale of buy to let property. Why? Auctions provide speed, security and certainty of sale. Selling with tenants in situ is very common through the auction avenue and auctioneers tend to have a much wider audience of buy to let investors. Once the gavel falls the buyer and seller are legally bound to the sale and contracts are exchanged. Neither party can pull out. Not only this, this method of sale eliminates any long negotiation processes and seller chains. This gives you, as a seller, total security, full control and peace of mind that your sale is guaranteed.

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