One in 30 rental properties in the Bexley area will be illegal in 2018

As the winter months draw in and the temperature starts to drop, keeping one’s home warm is vital. Yet, with the price of gas and electricity rising quicker than a Saturn V rocket, and gas, oil, and electricity costing on average 4.4% of a typical Brit’s pay packet (for Brits earning the lowest 10%, that rockets to an eye watering 9.7%), keeping your energy costs as low as possible is vital for the household budget and the environment, whether you are a tenant or a homeowner.

For the last 10 years, every private rental property must have an Energy-Performance-Certificate (EPC) rating.  The property is given an energy rating, very similar to those on washing machines and fridges with the rainbow coloured graph, of between A to G (A being the most efficient and G the worst). In spring 2018, new legislation comes into force for English and Welsh private landlords, making it illegal to let a property that does not meet a certain energy rating. As of April 1st, any new tenant moving into a private rented property, or an existing tenant renewing their tenancy, must have property with an energy performance rating of E or above on the property’s EPC. The new law will apply to all prevailing tenancies in the spring of 2020. After April 2018, if a landlord lets a property in the ‘F’ and ‘G’ ratings (i.e. those properties with the worst energy ratings) Trading Standards could fine them up to £4,000.

Personally, I suspect that many Bexley landlords may be totally unaware that their rental properties could fall below these new legal minimum requirements for energy efficiency benchmarks. Whilst some households may require substantial works to get from an F/G rating to an E rating or above, my experience is that most properties may only need some minor work to lift them from illegal to legal. Planning and acting now will mitigate the need to find tradespeople in the spring, when every other Bexley landlord will be panicking and paying top dollar for work to comply.

Whilst it costs money and effort to upgrade the energy efficiency of a rental property, an energy efficient property will have greater appeal to tenants and other buy-to-let landlords/investors, enabling you to obtain higher rents (and sale price, when you come to sell your investment).

So, how many local properties are F and G rated? Quite a few, in fact. Looking at the whole of the Bexley London Borough Council area, of the 10,556 privately rented properties, there are:

·         270 rental properties in the F banding

·         77 rental properties in the G banding

Just over one in 30 rental properties in the Bexley and surrounding area has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of F or G. From April next year, it will be illegal to rent out those homes with a new tenancy.

The energy assessors who carry out our EPCs tell me most of a building’s heat is lost through draughty windows/doors or poor insulation in the roof and walls. Why not look at your EPC and see what the assessor suggested to improve the efficiency of your property? I can find the EPC of every rental property in Bexley, so whether or not you are a client of mine, don’t hesitate to contact me via email (or phone) if you need some guidance on finding out your EPC rating, or need a trustworthy contractor to help you out.