Oct

New Guide on Meeting Minimum Energy Standards

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Energy Efficient Properties:

The Government has just issued new guidance on complying with minimum EPC standards.

With just six months to go now until the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) are introduced for residential rental properties the government has issued detailed guidance for landlords.

The MEES Regulations will make it unlawful for a landlord to start a new letting in a rental property with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating below “E” from next April. This will apply in England and Wales.

It is thought that still around 5% of rental homes – one in 20 – would fail to meet the new minimum energy efficiency standards if an EPC assessment was done today. Where landlords have properties falling into bands F or G, they will need to think about how they bring them up to standard before they do a new letting.

The new guidance issues by the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy is designed to help landlords to comply with the 2018 ‘Minimum Level of Energy Efficiency’ standard, comes under the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015.

The guide says:

“This document provides interpretation and guidance for landlords, enforcement authorities and others with an interest in the domestic private rented sector on the operation of Part Three of the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015 in relation to domestic property. This guidance is designed to help landlords to meet their obligations under the PRS (Private Rented Sector)”

The will be some exemptions, for example, for listed building and some social housing, but otherwise all residential landlords, whether just doing a casual letting, small or large landlords, will be affected.

Here in Figure 1 is a quick flow chart from the guide to help:

EPC - MEES