‘Landlords will still leave PRS even if EPC deadline changes’

Agents say a three-year extension to the deadline for landlords to meet EPC rating targets “will make little difference”.

They say many landlords faced with improvements bills of thousands will still leave PRS, leaving tenants without enough homes.

The proposed deadline for new lettings to have a minimum C rating is now 2028, instead of 2025, and this date will apply to all lettings, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.

Lettings industry leaders had warned that a deadline of 2025 was unrealistic, even with a maximum spend cap for landlords making improvements to properties at £10,000.

Previously, The Neg reported warnings that landlords will be forced out of the market, especially when faced with fines of up to £30,000 for non-complicance.

Mass exodus

Jason Davies, owner of Davies Properties based in Keighley, West Yorkshire (main picture), who predicted a “mass exodus of landlords” from PRS says the new deadline will not make much difference.

“I think that the majority of landlords in the PRS are still going to be reluctant to spend (potentially) thousands of pounds to upgrade their properties – pushing back the deadline is merely pushing back the problem (in the landlords’ minds) and kicking it into the long grass.

Pushing back the deadline is merely pushing back the problem … and kicking it into the long grass.”

“This problem will only fuel the fire as we are left with fewer and fewer decent homes available for tenants that will be at unaffordable rents for most, and only a fortunate few will be able to comfortably afford them.

Jeremy Clarke, a Belvoir agent in Dorset, says: “Without certainty and government funding for improvements, many landlords will still leave the PRS.

“Discrimination of landlords versus homeowners and other businesses continues; imagine the uproar if homeowners were forced to get their properties into a C band, fined if they didn’t and were banned from living in the property!”