Stuck with low EPC empty house we can’t rent?

Stuck with low EPC empty house we can’t rent?

9:05 AM, 7th February 2019, About 5 years ago 23

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My Husband and I (in our 50’s) bought a house, our first one together. We managed to save up the deposit and recover our credit over 15 years to get a mortgage. Shortly after completing I fell ill and had to move into a bungalow, but I am still working for now.

The house has an EPC score of 21/F and is standing empty. It has electric storage heaters, we cleared the house, bathroom is new and had gas connected, but we cannot afford to put the central heating in. We have enough savings for cheap carpets and basic kitchen, but would need another £5k for central heating. We tried the council for grants, nothing available to us as we both had a house back in the 80’s with ex partners.

Has anyone found any solution to improve their EPC even just to an E so we could rent it out?

We have it back on the market as we are paying rent and a mortgage which leaves us with little to live off. It breaks our heart we won’t be able to keep it as it was our retirement plan in 15 years.

Now we face renting for the rest of our lives again.

Many thanks

Worried


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Comments

Zoe AM

10:16 AM, 20th February 2019, About 5 years ago

Update!
I had a new EPC done it raised it by 1 point. Loft is fully insulated. Biggest issue was open chimneys, he said if we had grates in all of them they would have been classed as secondary heating or had blocked them up it would have improved the score. Hindsight is a marvellous thing! Wondering how many EPC's you can get done.....
We had British Gas out, quote was over £7k!!! Radiators alone were £2200. So that's a no. Cannot believe they actually get customers paying that?
We cannot do a rent to rent due to mortgage restrictions. So we are looking into borrowing money now.
Waiting on another heating quote.

Mike

15:40 PM, 20th February 2019, About 5 years ago

Sorry to hear that Zoe AM, the minute someone suggested to get quotes from one of the bigger players in gas heating, I laughed, 0% interest comes with a catch, and the catch is they will rip you off some other way, higher quotation price, a typical 3 bedroom CH with an average priced boiler between £750-£1000 plus installation charges and let us say you have 3 bedroom property should cost no more than about £3500.00 to £4,000.00
Seek quotations from private smaller players in this field, quotations also depends if the house is empty or will it require moving lots of stuff and carpets etc, if a house was undergoing refurb and all carpets were out and floor boards were easy access, then quotation is a lot lower, and as well as it depends in which part of the country your house is, you might care to tell us where it is.

I had a 3 bedroom property done for £3100.00 by private installers GS registered and a team of 3 people got it all done in a day and half, with a decent enough boiler Logic something that is now 3 years plus and has given a terrific service not once it needed topping up, or broke down.

Robert M

10:55 AM, 21st February 2019, About 5 years ago

As well as getting gas central heating installed, get those chimneys blocked off, as you said that this was a major issue in relation to the EPC score. This is a cheap and easy job. You can get a new EPC done whenever you have works carried out that are likely to affect the EPC score.

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