Eco follow-up: Information for Landlords

Unless you’ve been living under a stone for the last month, you’ll know green issues are the number one topic of conversation. While world leaders have debated coal mining and deforestation, there are a number of take-aways from recent weeks for landlords and tenants.

Boilers: in the biggest shake up of how we heat domestic homes in living memory, the Government’s Heat & Building Strategy sets out the end of gas boiler installation. Property investors who develop their own portfolio will be the first to be affected, as the fitting of conventional gas boilers in new properties is to be prohibited from 2025.  

All landlords need to take note of the second deadline. From 2035, the sale of conventional gas boilers will be banned, meaning that if a gas boiler breaks or is condemned in a buy-to-let property from 2035, it cannot be replaced with another gas boiler. Existing gas boilers that work, however, won’t have to be removed.

There is financial assistance available to landlords who would like to make a move away from gas fired central heating sooner than the 2035 deadline. The Clean Heat Grant is launching in April 2022 and landlords can apply for up to £5,000 of financial help to install a heat pump system – the Government’s preferred method of heating rental properties moving forwards. 

The £450 million fund will cover around 90,000 heat pump installations (which currently cost an average of £10,000) but it will be offered on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. We advise those hoping to take advantage of the grant to apply as soon as the initiative is open for applications.  

Funding: a fund worth £4.3 million is going to be shared by local councils in a bid to raise energy standards in the private rental sector.  Some 100,000 extra engagements with landlords will encourage them to comply with current eco regulations and make energy saving improvements – not only to save the environment but also to lower the fuel bills of tenants amid growing fears of fuel poverty. Part of the initiative is to offer landlords free property surveys that will identify where alterations can be made.

Green mortgages: eco-based lending is gaining traction and landlords with the highest EPC ratings now have access to the most favourable interest rate repayments and priority products. It is already reported that the number of ‘green’ buy-to-let mortgages has quadrupled in the past six months, with landlords encouraged to trade energy-saving improvements for advantageous lending conditions.

MEES may get stricter: MEES (Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards) for private rented properties may get tougher in the near future. Landlords need to watch the deadline of 2028, when the Government has proposed that all new, renewing and extending tenancies will need to have an EPC rating of C as a minimum. There’s also an ambitious plan for the eco bar to be raised even further, with the Government’s energy white paper aiming to outlaw new, renewing and extending tenancies that fall below a B from 2030.

If you would like to discuss energy efficiency in a rental property, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.