Just imagine, as a Daily Sceptic reader, temporarily going insane and buying into the rental market. Next, imagine going even more insane and pouring your savings (or increasing your mortgage) into trying to kit out your rental properties so that they gain the highest possible Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in a nod to the U.K.’s fixation at pouring astronomical sums down the eco plughole. You’d soon wish you’d never been born
That’s what the Telegraph’s Secret Landlord has done, but came a cropper when trying to improve a Victorian flat:
At great expense, I’ve carried out internal wall insulation and upgraded the electric storage heaters in my one-bedroom Victorian flat (I’d already fitted double glazing years ago).
There’s no gas and, given it’s a flat, no way to do something fancy with solar panels or heat pumps, so I elected to purchase two high heat retention storage heaters, which cost £2,500 with the installation.
I chose these top of the range models because I was assured they would help me achieve the hallowed EPC ‘C’ rating, which rented properties are required to have by 2030, up from the current grade ‘E’.
The assessor had already told me I only needed one heater to improve the score, but as I also wanted to improve the quality of a tenant’s life, I bought an extra – rather than a panel heater, which I could have done without lowering the EPC rating.
Having also installed lovely wooden flooring, I called the assessor and asked him to revisit the property. I still had a couple of years left on the old certificate, but wanted to get it done now to show potential tenants the new enhanced ratings.
Imagine my surprise when the certificate came back with a ‘D’, just one grade higher than it was previously.
Cue angry phone call.
“I did what you said, why have I not got a ‘C’?”
“You didn’t install 50mm insulation under the floor.”
“But it’s got floorboards, plyboard, insulated underlay and then wood flooring – surely that’s enough?”
“I’m sorry, Secret Landlord, you needed to insulate under the floor.”
“But,” I said, “I’ve been doing research on this and I worry it may rot the joists, there’s a fear it may breach the damp proof course and cause other issues.”
“They don’t care about that on the EPC.”
“So, what am I going to do?”
“I suggest you either rip up the floor and insulate, or accept the ‘D’. They’re changing the software in January, so you may be better off just doing it now.”
“Sorry, what?” I exclaimed.
At this point the conversation moves from the absurd to a Kafkaesque nightmare. The assessor continued:
“Yes, from January we have to measure all the windows, say what direction they’re facing and list the age. Electric heating will also potentially get downgraded because the new update includes heating costs and electric is more expensive to run. To be honest, I don’t understand why the Government is pushing heat pumps because having them could potentially lose you up to 11 points.”
“OK, so you’re essentially saying we’re having a window tax by the back door and the electric revolution they’re pushing is going to penalise me?”
“It’s a mess. The new tests will take double the time so the costs of an EPC will go up, I also wouldn’t be surprised if many assessors quit – loads left during the Green Deal.”
“OK,” I said, reeling from this new information. “What is it I should do?”
“Well, if you lower the ceiling by 400mm that will give you three extra points, you do have very high ceilings.”
Cue insane laughter. So insane, the assessor had to cut across my guffaws.
“But honestly, I don’t think the Government will stick to the ‘C’ grade, I think they’ll lower it to ‘D’. Also, they may drop that metric altogether as it’s measuring the wrong thing – it’s not in line with carbon reduction, and that’s what they’re trying to do.”
The Secret Landlord is thus left thousands out of pocket chasing an EPC rating being carried as fast as possible up the pitch attached to a pair of goalposts operated by mutating software. Even heat pumps turn out to be a liability.
The EPC is exposed as a pointless farce. The Conservative government proposed a £10,000 (previously £3,500) cap on landlords’ spending on an EPC upgrade. If that spending wasn’t successful in improving a landlord’s EPC rating, he or she could apply for an exemption. But the Telegraph points out that in almost every instance the real cost of ‘improving’ a property is far higher than 10 grand – in some cases almost four times. Difficult to imagine how you’d ever get the money back.
Worth reading in full.
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