What do changing EPC and heat pump requirements mean for the PRS?

What do changing EPC and heat pump requirements mean for the PRS?

15:07 PM, 9th November 2021, About 2 years ago 46

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Hi, my name’s Melissa Lawford, I’m the property correspondent at The Telegraph. I’m writing an article about what changing EPC and heat pump requirements mean for the buy-to-let sector.

I want to hear landlords’ thoughts on what the extra costs of upgrades will mean for them. Are you concerned about how expensive these works could be and/or do you have opinions on the effectiveness of heat pumps? Could the plans to introduce these new requirements affect your investment decisions or encourage you to sell up?

If you could spare 10 minutes for a quick chat or would like to share your story, please email me at melissa.lawford@telegraph.co.uk or call me at 07936135425.

I need to file this specific story by lunchtime on Wednesday, so ideally anything before then would be brilliant, though if anyone misses the deadline I would still be very interested to speak to them!

Thank you so much for your help,

Melissa


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Comments

Mick Roberts

15:47 PM, 19th November 2021, About 2 years ago

Reply to the comment left by GREENDIZZYCRAB at 19/11/2021 - 13:44
Ooh yeah that's a point. I have 4 flats in Council Blocks. Is it down to them or us? We not allowed to touch the outside. Ooh that's ok Mick it's in Council block, same rules don't apply to them.

PJB

18:19 PM, 19th November 2021, About 2 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 19/11/2021 - 12:38As this debate rattles on, as it inevitably will do, at least I know what options are available to me, and when the time comes, I can plan accordingly.
 
If moaning and bleating is the order of the day on this forum, then do so with authority and knowledge. Better yet, support a lobby group that can argue both the political and technical issues.

Mike

17:21 PM, 25th November 2021, About 2 years ago

One of my tenant in my HMO is running an External Wall Insulation company, doing mostly grant work in my area, I asked him to give me a quote to carry out 90mm External Wall insulation, which will require extending sills, etc and not much can be done on bay window pillars except may be 40mm Insulation, my property would cost 10K if I was entitled to a grant, but if I was paying for it myself then he could do it for 6K, really that means actual cost to insulate is around 6K when it is grant work they rip off the Governments, its same with insurance work, I took my car for a respray quote, the garage asked if it is under insurance claim, I said no I am paying cash, they declined to take the job on because they know sensibly that they cannot rip us off but if it is insurance work they can rip them off, indirectly it is costing us tax payers in higher taxes, and higher insurance premiums, so when you take a house insurance for a re-building cost of 250K, believe me that work could be done for much less than that if you told the builders you were paying from your own pocket.

As for EPC improvement, would I spend 6K on external wall insulation and not fully recover this cost in a reasonable period of time let us say in 5 years, so that is £1200 per year recovery from rents, will my tenants pay me an additional £100 pm in rent? Answer is no, so I am not going for it, simply because it will only save me £200 roughly in less heating costs, so work that out how many years will it take to recover that spending if rent was not put up, it would take 30 years provided inflation remained static, but we know inflation would go up so say 20 years, and the question is I am now 68, do I spend my cash and never recover fully as I don't expect to live another 10 years let alone 20yrs.

Better option would be Solar panels, than external insulation, as the return would be much higher than saving about £200 on heat loss, electricity is nearly 5 times more expensive so it makes sense to implement solar panels and you could even store energy in batteries or export unwanted energy and earn some cash, each kilowatt hour you generate you are saving nearly 20p in energy cost when gas is around 4p per kilowatt.

Mick Roberts

17:28 PM, 25th November 2021, About 2 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 25/11/2021 - 17:21
Great explanation Mike, sums a lot of Landlords up. We care about the environment, but we don't buy something to lose money or to get the recoup back when we 90 years old & can't enjoy it then on holidays & whatever else floats your boat. We've had enough of that many retrospective changes in last 6 to 10 years with Benefit Cap & tenancy deposits & Section 24 must now issue boiler service & No, u can't have your house back when you 65, your tenant stopping for life & the other 100 things they've put against us AFTER we've allowed the Council referred tenant to live there.

Beaver

17:52 PM, 25th November 2021, About 2 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 25/11/2021 - 17:21
I agree that either solar panels or photovoltaic tiles would make more sense than external insulation but the last time I checked I could not get a grant for either without putting in cavity wall insulation. So I didn't do it.

Lee Bailey

19:39 PM, 29th November 2021, About 2 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 10/11/2021 - 08:18
Entirely agree here.

It wouldn't surprise me if a great many sell up. I'm close to selling my portfolio. Let the government house people instead. They seem so intent on making everyone homeless for some reason.

They take 40% of my GROSS rent in tax due to Section 24 of the finance act. I get a measly 15% of my total rent received after Mortgages and fees and that's before maintenance.

I'd could get much more by selling up and putting the equity in an Isa wrapped fund or trust

Well done tories. Brilliant as ever George Giddian Osborne.

Shelter seem to have caused landlords pain too, let them house p

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