EPC and banning Section 21?

Interesting! At issue is also how the EPC itself is judiciable - if it is so elastic, how can a court judgement be made with any certainty..?

Very interesting indeed. Already we are seeing a number of lenders who are no longer lending on properties that are not C rated or better. One of my properties is in a social housing block of 60 flats and even with double glazing and a new boiler it is still D rated. My lease stipulates that I own the plaster on the walls and ceiling so hard to see how I can improve things yet the rent will never cover the cost of a SVR mortgage when my cheap deal ends next year and my long term tenant (also for a long time unemployed) has no intentions of moving away any time soon. I'm sure there are many other landlords in a similar position

There are several problems.
The truly awful quality of many EPC assessors, some of whom who can't even identify a foam insulated wall. The EPC system is unreliable overkill.
The insane out of control planning industry, and the religion of listed buildings, where energy control is heretical.
The massive increase in interest rates which is hammering landlords margins and ability to spend on maintenance, but which is totally the wrong tool for the type of inflation we have today.
Prive gouding and fraud by councils, planenrs ,a nd the endless numbers of consultants obliged in these functions.
The rise of professional tenants and professional disabled tenants for whom rent is an option and who will cost a landlord £100k to regain possession.
The ineptitude of courts to handle posseession matters.
The absence of a supply fo bailiffs.
The mis-use of legal aid, and legal-aid fraud.
The inscrease in overtly fraudulent tenants references, inability of reference companies to do quality checks.
Ever more regulations protecting indolent and feckless tenants who live in squalor, and ignore their agreements, all to deal with the 3 to 5% of poor landlords.
The UK PRS will be gone in 5 years.
Please stop electing media-driven incompetent amateur ideologues to government.
THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

EPCs have saved less energy and CO2 production than the insane system to administrate it has generated.
People are still not turning down their heating. We have waste and indolence. This is so badly thought through, over bureacratic and thoughtless.
So what does government do? yes! Subsidise the price gougers and refuse to revise the fake "wholesale market" owned by their favorite lobbyists.
It's all fraud and just another make-work industry for its own sake.

The cynical way I see it that of course you won’t be able to evict because it will be your fault that you have neglected your property to the extent that it does not meet the EPC regulations. So it will be the obligatory up to £30,000 fine that seems to attach to any landlord misdemeanours nowadays and a rent repayment order and compensation until you do upgrade as you have now become a rogue landlord forcing your tenants to live in what has become sub-standard housing overnight.

Reply to the comment left by Kopf Schmerz at 28/02/2023 - 15:28
I noticed you called the courts inept. Very generous of you. Try corrupt. I cant help thinking the judiciary are in league with the councils and will bend over backwards to prevent a landlord problem becoming a council problem. My judge INVENTED a deposit for my tenant then deferred my section 21 for a total of 17 months. My case is now rescheduled to Feb 2024. If this is typical of the justice landlords are entitled to, who needs criminals?????

Most EPC upgrades required from E to a C will required internal wall insulation that cannot be done whilst the tenant is in the property, so eviction is required, after that sell it, it doesn't look likely that the proposed 1st of April 2025 for all new tenancies to meet a minimum EPC grade C will met as the government has not yet concluded anything, I would put my money on a fudge until after the 2025 election whereupon Labour will most probably win, the reality is even with Labour there will a calamity of so few houses to rent and tenants shoved into hotels politician's will have to have a re think,so don't worry about it, if you can sell get out before an election of wait to see a government go into reverse gear

Show me a victorian built house whiich is EPC Level C!!!
Half the uk housing stock would need to be demolished and rebuilt to get anywhere near sufficient homes being at level C just cos some do-good idiots think its a good idea when the majority of uk homes are level D or lower. And its ok for ordinary folk to live in level D homes but not if you happen to need to rent a home.....
When are they gonna realize that the level C rating is a non achievable utopian dream in this country. It might work in places like Dubai which is all new but not the UK. Sorry Get Real.
What is 118 doing about these absurd plans we need a dose of hard reality in government???

I think it is just a question of finding a 'friendly' EPC assessor.
I am currently in the process of selling a mid terraced victorian property, having repossessed it because it is currently rated as an 'E' despite having GFCH, Double glazing, loft insulation, modern boiler and energy efficient light bulbs throughout. But the property next door, which is owned by the local authority housing association has a 'C' rating, even though it has a great big hole in the wall to allow cats in and out, and no other enhancements that mine doesn't have. They were built at the same time in the same terrace.
The only significant difference is that the EPC assessor for the LA property is a LA employee! So there we have it, we need to go on an EPC assessors course ourselves and rate our own properties, or find an assessor who is as generous as the council assessors are when they inspect their own properties.

Put simply, it’s a trap !