Exemptions to EPC rules ‘certain’, warns leading property figure
Former ARLA Propertymark president Maxine Fothergill says the Government will have to allow exceptions to the minimum C rating or face problems.
The Government will be forced to allow exemptions when landlords are required to ensure their properties reach a minimum EPC rating of C, a leading property industry figure warns.
Maxine Fothergill (main picture), who is the immediate past president of trade body ARLA Propertymark, tells The Neg many landlords will not be able to afford to make the necessary changes.
The deadline to achieve a C rating was recently put back three years to 2028 for all lettings as the Government acknowledged the amount of work needed on some properties.
But Fothergill believes this is not enough and that there will be thousands of landlords who cannot fork out for the cost to retrofit older homes.
“There is going to be a raft of exemptions,” she says. “There will have to be a common sense approach.”
Crisis
Fothergill, who is MD of Amax Estates in Gravesend, Kent, and a trainer of landlords and agents, was told by an energy assessor she needed a wind turbine at her own cottage to achieve a C rating.
She says many landlords are either leaving the sector or thinking about getting out, especially as the Government’s proposed PRS reforms will make it less attractive.
It is a bit of a mess, a crisis really…”
“It is a bit of a mess, a crisis really,” she adds.
Around 60% of landlords said they would consider selling up if they were forced to make expensive EPC upgrades, while a third (28%) reported that the costs alone couldn’t be coming at a worse time, recent research from Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) revealed.
Meanwhile, a similar number (30%) said they’re most likely going to pass any costs onto tenants.
Several of my houses are electric only and the only way I can get from a D to a C rating is to fit gas CH, which is madness when the government is trying to stop gas CH systems.
I believe my issue is because electricity is seen as more expensive than gas which seems to say EPC is not about energy performance, but energy cost.
Does anyone else fit into this trap ?
And all for what? “Climate Change”? the one the Chinese ignore and if every house in the UK was a band A it would reduce global carbon by 0.0001%? oh that one. Schmucks…hey ho, tenants will end up paying one way or another or be homeless thanks to the Gov.
Simple question- if 20% of landlords decide no longer going to let their property and sell instead, where do 20% of all tenants go?
You can bet that of all those 1,000’s of homes this could be, most won’t be bought by other landlords!
Yes well said. And even more than the 20% will be 60% of the rest of tenants won’t be able to afford these New build standards.
She needs to be saying
Not many tenants will be able to afford it as they the ones that will be paying.
My notes on this if these authority figures can please understand what’s happening on the ground.
I’ll keep repeating this, as applies to many attacks on us lately.
It’s still not happening.
They/we not gonna’ be able to retrofit these 1920 houses while tenant is living there & on the cheap rents a lot of tenants are paying.
Govt has to stop penalising tenants AFTER they’ve moved into their home.
Who’s paying for this then?
Cause if tenants are paying cheap rent ie. Landlord looking after em, & then maybe £5000 or £30,000 to upgrade from E to a C, Landlord then says I can no longer look after u with cheap rent. Cheap rent doesn’t pay for these outgoings, I’ve now got to charge u what the Landlord is charging his better off tenants up the road who’s paying more to live in that New build.
I’ve got to start telling tenants soon You can’t live here past 2028 anyway, Govt say u can’t if EPC not a C. And your rent doesn’t pay for a C.
Has anyone asked the tenants what they want? We know they want the better house, but when u give them choice I can give u New build for £1000pm or EPC C for £900pm, or still decent house EPC D but not New build standards for £700pm or £550pm I know what all my tenants say.
With a threatened increase in EPC ratings to B by 2030 for commercial property, the financial effects will be devastating.