Landlord Energy Reports (EPCs)

(extracts from CLG "A guide to Landlords")

From the 1st October 2008, an EPC will be required whenever a building in the social or private sectors is let to a new tenant.

The landlord must commission an EPC and ensure a copy of it, including the recommendation report is available free of charge to prospective tenants at the earliest opportunity. However if the recommendation report shows that the dwelling has the potential to be improved, the landlord is under no obligation to do so.

In instances of lettings where marketing activity is initiated pre-October 2008, an EPC is only required if the property continues to be offered for let on or after 1st October 2008.

Where the landlord has an agent, they may be given the task of ensuring that these requirements are met. However, the landlord will remain responsible for any breaches.

The landlord is not required to produce an EPC when an existing lease is renewed, only when the tenant changes.

The landlord should maintain an audible trail of communication to show: whether a tenant has agreed to receive an EPC electronically, and whether they have in fact received it.

EPCs are valid for ten years and can be reused for new tenants as many times as required within that period. The local weights & measures authority, which will be the Trading Standards department for the area, is responsible for enforcing the regulations that require EPCs to be produced for rented dwellings. An authorised Trading Standards officer (TSO) has powers to ask a landlord, who appears to be or to have been under a duty in the regulations to produce for inspection an EPC and recommendation report, if the TSO suspects that an offence has been committed.

If the landlord has failed to produce an EPC to a tenant, or fails to show an EPC to an enforcement officer when asked, Trading Standards can issue a notice with a penalty charge of £200 per dwelling. In addition to paying the penalty notice, the landlord will still have to produce an EPC to the person who has become the tenant.

More information is available from the Communities & Local Government website www.communities.gov.uk

Guide to Landlords full publication

Before we can inspect a rented property in the social or private sectors, we will require the Landlord to fill out the pre-inspection questionnaire. We will also need documentary evidence of any improvement work to the building since construction, on anything that may affect the energy rating. This includes insulation in the floor, walls & roof for which certificates, guarantees, warantees or building regulation submissions may be required as documentary evidence. We also need to know construction dates of any extensions or loft conversions & installation dates of double glazed windows.