EPC C in HMO 2025 or 2028?

EPC C in HMO 2025 or 2028?

0:02 AM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago 11

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Hello, As we all know the government is stipulating a minimum EPC ‘C’ for new tenancies signed in 2025, and for all rented homes by 2028. I run licenced HMOs with individual room lets on ASTs.

Legally, do I need to reach ‘C’ in 2025 on the first new room let tenancy, even though the other 4 tenants would be on pre-2025 contracts?

My business model is “all bills included in rent”, I’ve done all the low-hanging fruit on energy savings and to reach ‘C’ in one Victorian house with solid walls, I would probably need to have a rota on empty rooms to install wall insulation between tenants.

As I’m approaching retirement, I wonder if the payback period on all of this will stretch into my next lifetime!

Thank you,

John


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Comments

SteveFowkes

9:57 AM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

Nothing agreed yet

Karl

10:30 AM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

As a Landlord, currently you do not need to have or provide to tenant, an EPC certificate to rent a room in a HMO

Seething Landlord

10:33 AM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

The government have not stipulated anything and until they do, nobody can be sure what the requirements in the future will be.

Judith Wordsworth

11:20 AM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

What is your current EPC? And how difficult would it be logistically to upgrade whatever is necessary to reach a C?

Not law yet, but depends if the Bill goes through HoC & HoL readings and then Royal Ascent and who knows how long this might take, or if ever.

Canuk

12:08 PM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

As mentioned by others, we do not know whether we need an EPC for all residential let with C rating by April 2025.
You do NOT need to serve an EPC onto tenants, as part of s21 requirements, when letting room-by-room basis. EPC can only be assessed on "legal dwelling" basis that you may have one already for the entire building when you bought it. If you have a combination of self-contained flats and bedsits in the same building, your self-contained flats need valid EPC not bedsits.
If you're letting your property room-by-room on an individual tenancy agreement then you do not need an EPC for these rooms. If you’re letting the entire building on a single tenancy agreement then you need a valid EPC for the building.
Check with a reputable EPC assessor who would rest assure that you do not an EPC for your individual rooms.
I had gone through this with my FTSE250 lender, EPC assessor and even my solicitor had no clue … So don’t waste your money and stay tight for the time being.

moneymanager

12:50 PM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

Unfortunately this impostion will be the least of our problems, for ALL the country not just landlords for the lunatics are truly in charge of the asylum: From 2021
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rigorous-new-targets-for-green-building-revolution
In this synopisis you wil see that insanely stringent regulations will apply to OWNER OCCUPIED properties even on existing stock.

Call me a conspracy theorist if you will, but the deprivation of private property by the imposition of ever higher property taxes was written about as part of a programme of which we are now in endgame as far back as 1895, it's quite amazing how much denigrated documents now read like a road map of what has and what still is occuring.

LaLo

13:06 PM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

Could a home owner not convert their property into bedsits and rent them all to themselves? There will be a loophole somewhere for the privileged few as the costs will be astronomical !

Rajveer Athwal

16:17 PM, 1st February 2023, About A year ago

Hi John
Please drop me a line if you’re looking to sell

John Adair

8:52 AM, 2nd February 2023, About A year ago

Thanks for your help and comments. Would be good to get details of gov plans as to how it affects HMOs - Mine don't have EPCs, this was declared at licencing and Environmental Health made no comment apart from noting energy-saving measures when they inspected properties. Reaching a 'C' with the Victorian house, I think would cost over £10k. I've no self-contained flats. Everyone is sharing some household faculties, with only a few bedsits. I'm only thinking short-term as want to keep struggling and sell the business as a going concern in 5 years.

Laura Smith

9:11 AM, 2nd February 2023, About A year ago

Hi John,

The Bill to change the minimum standard to a C is still in the house of Commons. There's been lots of ambiguity about MEES applying to HMO properties, but the general consequences is that it does. You'll only need one certificate for the whole dwelling. It would be worth checking out the various energy projects to see if you can get any works funded. Eco Flex 4 is available to landlords and may cover some of the costs. The income limit is based on the tenants income not the landlords, but I am unsure if this would be suitable for a HMO. Another project to look out for is ECO Plus which should drop in a few months, based on the consultation paperwork this will cover single retrofit measures in tenanted properties.

As a first step I would recommend talking to your local council and telling them that you want to improve the properties EPC and asking if there's any funding available to help you achieve this. Mine recently made £80,000 available to landlords to make energy efficiency improvements. So it's worth checking!

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