Hello? Does Anyone Know Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) Exist Yet?

Letting Agent won't advertise without it.

In reality during viewings a perspective tenant has never asked to see one, ever.

I think trading standards can enforce the rules that landlord's must have them to advertise a property?

I'm about to relet two houses which both have epc certificates. I had actually forgotten all about them and their lifespan till I read this. I will now dig them out and show them to prospective tenants and see what happens :)
Certainly, nobody has EVER requested to see one.. they almost never ask for gas safety certificates, so these will come way down the list of priorities..

Letting agents SAY they won't advertise unless you have the EPC but they do. My agent didn't even bother asking to see mine until after the contract was signed with my tenant. Same goes for the gas cert.

Thinking back to when I was a tenant, I really don't think an EPC would have made any difference to my decision. When you find a property you like, you grab it quick, before one of the many other renters out there gets it. You're looking at the property itself, location, size, comfort etc. It's energy efficiency in reality is way down that list, if considered at all. I think an EPC may be more beneficial to buyers than renters.

As I'm currently doing battle with BG, who removed the meter because of fraudulent practice and now want £500 from me to replace it (tenant currently residing at her majesty's pleasure) I think I can reliably say that the assertion that buyers will be more interested than tenants is absolutely true. If you're going to fiddle the meter anyway, who cares how efficient the system is...? Just leave it on full time..

Hopefully when the first page of EPCs is simplified (next year?) it will be much easier to understand & tenants will be able to clearly see the benefits. But as long as EPCs continue to consist of 5 pages, most of which is irrelevant, nobody will bother reading through them to find the useful bits.

Nice idea, unfortunately they are not worth the paper they are written on. At £50 a time I always read through them but I could easily knock one up as a cut and paste that would be far more relevant.

Anyone know of a prosecution for not having one?
Before any energy assessors come up with ficticious cases, please provide a link.
Trading Standards may fine up to £200 but haven't done so yet AFAIK- Are they applying common sense to a bo****cks law?

The cartoon is genius. I spat out my beer from laughing at it.

My property manager asked for it so he had a copy in his files but tennants could not give a shit.

I bought a repossessed house - completed in March. The house had been unoccupied since September. The seller (mortgage lender) had an EPC done in December in order to sell the place. There was snow on the ground and the house was freezing cold, damp, dark and absolutely filthy. The EPC makes grim reading.

But it lasts for 10 years and so the fact that it bears no resemblance to the house in it's present condition means that it is as good as worthless.

I've done about 12 rentals this year and always have a EPC with me, but no-one in my time (4 years self-employed landlord) has ever asked for it and even when I've shown them, they look at me as if say and what are we meant to do with that - they simply don't care.

Personally, I think there a complete waste of time and just another layer of red-tape for landlords to pay for. A tenant with any common sense, can look at the age of the boiler, the double glazing, ask if the place has insulation and energy-saving lightbulbs and work out if the place is energy efficient or not - it's not rocket science!

Tenants ought to care about EPCs for more than just altruistic (or "hippy"!) reasons - they're an indicator of how much £££ they can expect to pay for energy bills etc.

The problem is they are currently quite a blunt instrument for both measuring and showing this. The only thing that will make sense to potential tenants is a number with a pound sign in front of it - that's the easiest thing to understand and compare across properties.

Nigel
@letengine

You want to try and tell new landlords why they need to spend between £40 & £80 on something that wouldn't benefit them unless they were willing to spend extra money on their property to improve the score. It's a bit of a mare sometimes.

Although they are quite useful if your local council has a scheme to improve energy efficiancy in homes (especially Benefit tenants) because they could do work on the house for free.

I have purchased, renovated and then let out 5 properties in the last 12 months. I always get a copy of the EPC from the sales process and then always ensure(as is reqd by law) to make sure a tenant has seen the document prior to them signing the AST. I always compile a booklet for tenants so that they have all the documents in one folder (AST, Invet, EPC, Instructions, phone nos etc). EPC is a complete waste for all concerned, landlords, sellers, tenants are all basically not interested. Hopefully go the same way as HIPs.

I've just had an EPC certificate for a house I'm buying and must say it's the most worthless document I've seen. It didn't tell me anything that I, as a non-expert, couldn't see with my own eyes just by looking at the house with the estate agent. I don't need a document to tell me the house has double glazing but no energy efficient lighting!

The only thing I wanted to know about the house it couldn't tell me: whether there was cavity wall insulation. The surveyor stated on the certificate he assumed there wasn't based on age (exactly my conclusion) but couldn't tell for sure.

Word of Warning......Check your EPC was registered.

This one came out of the blue. I had an EPC issued in 2010 and have just heard from my letting agents that they now have to display the front page of the EPC on their detail sheets of the property.

They tried to download it from the EPC register only to find it doesn't exist and the inspector was probably not accredited. I've spoken to the company that it was arranged through only to find that apparently some inspectors couldn't be arsed to register the EPC because of the cost involved!! It looks like I now have to have another inspection done.

It might be worth checking your RRN (24 digit number on EPC) at https://www.epcregister.com/searchAssessor to see if you have a valid certificate performed by an accredited inspector.

Very interesting and thanks for the advice Patch, didn't know you could check them. Have just checked mine and it's been registered, thankfully.

I wonder how many people will find they have the same problem as you?

Hi Sabs,
Glad that info was of some use. I had no idea this problem could arise and was lucky my letting agents are pretty good and efficient. I'm now just waiting for the EPC company to get back to me about the inspection having to be re-done at no cost to me?.

Apparently it costs about £10 to register the inspection report? So if the EPC generally cost £55 that's less money for the inspector and how many of us would bother to check its been registered? I had my EPC sent to me via email, which I forwarded on the agents.

It does seem in the early days of EPC's they weren't very well regulated and possible still aren't?

It will be interesting to see if this is an isolated case or more wide spread?

Another bit of wretched Euro regulation dreamt up by unelected Brussels bureaucrats. Add in local authorities compulsorily registering landlords with substantial registration fees. It all contributes to higher rents for tenants as landlords cover their costs. Vote UKIP.

Love this article thank you. It's spot on. I might start looking at them when i buy a new house as the one i'm in at present takes a lot to heat. Maybe they will be useful one day when everyone knows about them. But how difficult is it? Old houses are not efficient, new houses with their mountains of insulation are. Sinple? I'm about to take on a new tennant and trying to work out who to use for an epc. Who to use...I have no clue