Why should landlords be improving the efficiency of their properties?

The two million or so people who rent out about five million properties across the UK have the power to shape the price and quality of the homes that a great many people live in.

 

Their influence stretches beyond the management of the housing arrangements of individuals, however. By controlling the quality and standard of properties they can ensure that the housing stock is safer and more secure – cutting issues with anti-social behaviour and energy efficiency.

 

That last point is an important one, with landlords able to help cut the bills of tenants and the emissions coming from the properties in their portfolio. But there’s more than just goodwill to be had from improving the efficiency of properties - the law is getting tougher in this regard.

 

The Department of Energy and Climate Change has said that, from April 2018, landlords will be legally required to raise the energy efficiency of rental properties so that they are at least in ‘Band E’.

 

That refers to the grade shown on a property’s Energy Performance Certificate. These documents rate a home from A (best) to G (the worst) in terms of energy efficiency and are a legal requirement for anyone who rents or sells a property. See this guide for more about Energy Performance Certificates.

 

The Government believes that forcing landlords to drag their properties up to standard will save some of the poorest families almost £900 a year on their bills, a stark figure that shows the value in energy efficiency.

 

While this might be mandatory from next April, as of last year tenants have already been allowed to ask landlords for permission to take energy efficiency measures. Landlords are not allowed to ‘unreasonably refuse’ this.

 

This is not the only law change to be aware of. The Deregulation Act came into force in 2015 with a move to tidy up and clarify a number of laws.

 

One measure within this related to Energy Performance Certificates, making it certain that landlords could not take back possession of their property using a ‘section 21 notice’ – the part of the Housing Act 1988 that allows this to happen at the end of a fixed term tenancy – without issuing both the energy performance and gas safety certificates.

 

If these are the ‘stick’, there is also a ‘carrot’ in regards of pushing landlords towards making their homes more efficient. Tenants are savvy consumers who are increasingly aware of the costs of the sort of bills outlined above. They don’t want to come into a draughty, cold home that will leave them with big bills and at risk of ill health. For landlords that means their Energy Performance Certificate grade matters more than ever – and becomes a selling point in the same way as ‘good parking’, ‘three bedrooms’, and ‘modern kitchen’ are in property listings.

 

In ‘doing the right thing’, landlords will make sure they both abide by the law and make their property more attractive to would-be tenants, making efficiency measures a smart investment for everyone concerned.