Renters should reclaim rent if EPC standards are missed – Generation Rent

They’ll have no houses left soon to claim for.
Why not fine us for turning up at the house in scruffy clothes instead of a suit.

So how does that work? My, otherwise well maintained, Victorian terrace houses will need substantial work to get from D to C. I can’t ask the tenants to leave in order to do those works. Even if someone would lend me the money to carry them out and even if I could find trades, and even if the Government had confirmed what would be required for an EPC C.

However they then could ask for their rent back.

The outcome will be landlords selling up cheaply to hard nosed investors who will very much have their eye on profit, not tenant welfare.

Generaltion Rent do not understand a cost such as EPC upgrades will eventual increase rent.

I do believe that the EPC C rating should be the goal but I do not think the cost/hassle/endless paperwork/time for most landlords will allow then to keep older properties therefore newer properties with a C rating will cost more to rent (if the older property is replaced). I think that is another reason landlords are leaving the sector.

I wonder if they have thought this through?

I think GR are brash, aggresive and thoughtless. Maybe they are funded somehow, making a wage for themselves and simply need to show they are helping tenants but they are doing them a disserve.

Reply to the comment left by Property One at 18/03/2026 – 09:56
If the Government really cared about net zero, they would be encouraging renters to turn down their thermostats and consider wearing jumpers rather than just T shirts. All too often I go into a rented property and it is like a sauna.

With the RRA It’s called 4 months notice and then place on market for sale, job done!

Ben could do with aquainting himself with the reality of upgrading older properties – what happened when the government recently backed the fitting of external wall insulation under one of the schemes?

An incredible NINTEY EIGHT percent of properties have problems (basically mould and damp).

This whole thing is getting ridiculously out of hand fuelled by the politicians and the usual suspects in the so called housing charities and pressure groups.

Yes, houses should be well maintained but that isn’t what the EPC is o out. The majority of rental homes that are legally let (E and above with a few exceptions for Listed properties) are already at EPC D. A typical Victorian terrace with a condensing boiler with good controls on the heating system, loft insulation and double glazing will be at D.

These are perfectly decent houses and shouldn’t cost an excessive amount to run (helped by putting an extra layer on in the winter like many owner occupiers do including myself) but there is an idea being exploited that these are unfit for habitation because they are not the magical C.

C is easy for later properties but immensely problematical for the earlier solid wall ones where the marginal increase of one band is potentially very expensive and not without risk of actually creating damp and mould.

These older properties will leave the PRS and be taken on by owner occupiers who will be able to live in them perfectly happily without the constraint of mandatory EPC C. Fine – unless you are in the market for one to rent.

With the threat that has heating will not be given a c rating I imagine very few properties will remain in the PRS, everyone else will of course be exempt.

The Government does not seem to understanding Landlord finance. I have been successfully renting for four decades. I have not made a fortune, in part because I have prioritised retaining good tenants, regular maintenance and a quiet life. I have been willing to invest in order to keep the properties in good order, effectively one big job a year (new kitchen/bathroom, external painting or similar) and a few small ones. (replacement window, new boiler, insulating an external wall, new carpet, painting.) When something larger needs doing I have refinanced.

Now I am stuck. Interest rates have risen and I no longer have an earned income to support new borrowing. Rent is static, whilst interest rates and risk are rising. Compliance costs are also rising. HMO licensing…for a one bed flat. Making Tax Digital. Fire Risk Assessment. (Please tell me why flat fire doors need checking every year. I have done the work to make mine compliant, but FRA assessments are so random that there is every chance that the next expensive guy will ask for something different.) All the time construction materials and labour costs rise. (Parking for a van in central London is £17ph+ on top of congestion charge and ULEZ.) 100% council tax surcharge during voids. My profit is squeezed with the very real risk that I could have a problem tenant who costs me tens of thousands.

If the Government is deciding that my investment priority is converting Victorian properties from EPC D to C, where is the money coming from to invest in sensible improvements that the tenant actually wants to see.

Generation Rent needn’t worry. Tye tenants will be evicted and the properties transferred to the owner-occupier sector.

Former tenants will be housed in temporary accommodation and Mad Ed will see that the average EPC across all sectors barely moved. Those rentals that can reasonably be improved, will see the rents increase by as much, or more, than the monthly savings on energy bills.

Yes, I could spend £10k turning a perfectly adequate D-rated semi worth £120k into a damp-ridden sweat box. The tenants might save £30 per month but I’d need £70 per month more rent.

I guess the cowboys that install under these schemes will be lobbying hard.

“…where the government chooses to put common sense protections in place to allow renters to enjoy the benefits of their new warmer homes and cheaper bills.”

It is a sad joke that the cause of high bills is the very same “climate change policies” that Ben Twomey is in favour of.

Twomey should also realise that the saving between a D rated house in the 60s and a C rated one in the low 70s is minimal. Indeed, if the landlord puts solar panels on the roof and sells to the grid, the EPC rating will improve but the cost of heating the house will not decrease.