Government urged to provide greater clarity over energy efficiency standards
The government has been urged to provide owners of buy-to-let properties with greater clarity regarding new laws forbidding the letting of the most energy inefficient homes.
According to the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), it is likely that, from 2018 at the latest, properties rated G and F for energy efficiency will be subject to compulsory improvements.
It will then be no longer lawful to let these properties, or continue to let them, until they are brought up to at least category E standard.
However, this has yet to be fully confirmed by the government, something which is making it difficult for landlords to know what changes they need to make to their properties.
"Those categories are not enshrined in stone. We have actually been pressing the government to include that in the bill or at least make the regulations sooner rather than later, so that the landlords who are going to be subject to the changes, are aware of who they are, can identify their properties and will not then get the goalposts moved later on," said the RLA's policy director Richard Jones.
"The government wants to see voluntary compliance, but the one thing that puts landlords off voluntary compliance and getting on with it is the uncertainty about the standards that they will need to meet."
He added that with many G and F-rated properties, simple changes such as installing loft and cavity insulation or upgrading the boiler could be enough to bring them up to standard.
It follows a recent survey by the National Landlords Association which found that approximately two-thirds of private landlords would consider taking advantage of the government's Green Deal scheme.
Under the scheme, landlords will be able to access a loan to carry out upgrades to their properties which improve their energy efficiency, with the loan being repaid out of the savings made to utility bills.
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