Landlords with low-energy homes urged to give tenant advice

A low-energy home offering much lower running costs can still leave a new tenant baffled at the front door, one organisation says.

Now new guidance says landlords, Build-to-Rent operators and letting agents should support residents from their first enquiry through to later tenancies.

The Future Homes Hub and Good Homes Alliance said all-electric properties increasingly include heat pumps, mechanical ventilation, solar PV and smart time-of-use electricity tariffs.

Tenants often have less opportunity than buyers to learn how those systems work before moving in.

Tenant guidance gap

The hub’s head of homes, Ross Holleron, said: “The industry has made huge progress in improving the performance of new homes.

“The next step is ensuring residents have the knowledge and confidence to get the full benefit from them.”

He added: “For renters in particular, the customer journey plays a critical role.

“They often have fewer opportunities than homebuyers to understand how their home works before moving in and rely on landlords, letting agents and resident-facing teams to support them.”

Support beyond handover

The guide advises organisations not to treat handover as a single event.

Instead, support should begin during marketing and lettings, continue before move-in and extend into aftercare, repairs and maintenance.

Suggested measures include short videos and QR codes before occupation, followed by information introduced gradually rather than all at once.

Maintenance visits can also be used to reinforce advice on heat pumps, ventilation and other unfamiliar equipment.

Six journey stages

The guidance divides the resident journey into lettings and allocation, pre-handover, handover, aftercare and future tenants, repairs and maintenance, and continuous improvement.

It says each new occupant should receive the same standard of onboarding and support as the first.

Organisations are also encouraged to build the measures into existing processes rather than create an entirely new system.

The guide is available free from the Future Homes Hub Knowledge Centre.