New energy regulation for landlords

The government are truly on a ‘green’ path at the moment and their latest move has recently come into force. From now, the Energy Efficiency Regulations 2015 require domestic landlords to meet the new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES).

What does this mean?

It means that from the 1

st April 2016, tenants can now request that energy improvements are made to their rental property. The tenant should write to the landlord to explain what measures they wish to take and how they will be funded – either directly by the tenant or through a government energy efficiency scheme (where applicable). We must point out at this stage that no consent for energy efficiency works can be unreasonably refused by a landlord. Tenants can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal if they are not satisfied with a landlord’s response.

There are more changes to come and this is just the first step.

What lies ahead?

From 1

st April 2018, landlords will need to ensure that the EPC rating of all their rental properties sit at level E or above. This applies to all new tenancies starting from April 2018.

From 1st April 2020, landlords will need to ensure that all properties have an EPC rating of E or above for all existing tenancies.

As always, it’s much better to be ahead of the game so the more efficient you are now, the less you’ll have to do further down the line.  

You can read more about all the changes here, but if you have any unanswered questions then our team are only a phone call away, for our Manchester office call 0161 637 8336 and our Liverpool office call 0151 305 2577.