Energy Performace Certificate

From 1st October 2008, landlords are required to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for each property they rent out.

The EPC must be available for prospective tenants to inspect before the proeprty can be advertised for rent.

An EPC is valid for 10 years.

The EPC will consider the type and size of property, levels of insulation, type of heating, windows and lightbulbs. It will give a measure of the current cost of heating and lighting such a property and the impact on the environment. It will also suggest several options for alterations, such as increased insulation, and give some indication of the savings they would make.

In our experience, the EPC is a totally worthless piece of paper. Landlords aren't interested in the information contained in it, tenants aren't bothered about even seeing it. The information contained in it is poor - for example a house with 1 year old badly fitting UPVC windows with damaged seals and which woudl not shut properly was classed as having very good windows yet a house with beautifully maintained, well fitting, draft free single glazed windows was classed as very poor. As a landlord you could easily install low energy light bulbs into a house just before the EPC inspection and then replace with cheap inefficient ones again just afterwards yet for the next 10 years that house would be classed as having energy efficient lighting. Similarly with insulation

If the property has previously been available for sale then an current EPC should have been included as part of the Home Information Pack (HIP) and this can be provided to prospective tenants without need for obtaining a new EPC.