The following information is provided as a guide for residential landlords in England. Regulations may change (sometimes at short notice) or could vary in other parts of the United Kingdom.
An EPC contains information about a property’s energy use and typical energy costs in addition to recommendations about how to reduce energy use and save money. It gives a property an energy efficiency rating from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient). An EPC can be issued by an accredited assessor.
An Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) is needed whenever a property is built, sold or rented. Therefore all rental properties in England require a valid EPC.
Without an EPC rated E or above, landlords face civil and criminal penalties for signing a new tenancy, or renewing an existing tenancy. There are fines of up to £5,000 per property for landlords that are found in breach of the legislation.
“Many Landlords are still not aware of the minimum EPC requirement is to be able to rent a property. In fact one Landlord told us that he thought this regulation only applied to properties rented through an agent and not him. When about to start marketing to find tenants for another ‘Let Only’ Landlord it became apparent that their EPC rating didn’t meet the legislations minimum standards, so Galley Properties were able to arrange for the most cost effective works to increase the rating and then arrange for a new EPC to show that the property was now compliant to be let”
– Teresa Galley –
An EPC is valid for 10 years, therefore a certificate should be issued every ten years.
EPC calculations are changing all the time and it is possible that you will receive a different rating today to the one you got several years ago. If the property’s EPC rating is below an E then you will need to make efficiency improvements to boost your rating before you let it out or renew your contract. Your old EPC report will have a list of recommended measures for improving your property’s energy efficiency performance. You will need to carry out enough of these measures to improve your score to above an E rating. Some measures could be carried out at relatively low cost (such as upgrading lighting to LEDs) whereas other measures could cost more (such as upgrading wall or loft insulation).