Landlords across the UK had been preparing for the Energy Performance Certificate changes to come into play in 2025 which meant that for all new tenancies, properties must have a rating of C or above. See our previous blog from 2022. However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this week has announced that these plans have been revoked with no new deadline being proposed.
Sunak said: “Under current plans, some property owners would have been forced to make expensive upgrades in just two years’ time. That’s just wrong. So those plans will be scrapped and while we will continue to subsidise energy efficiency, we’ll never force any household to do it.”
For some landlords this announcement comes all too late as they have already made those ‘expensive upgrades’ and some mortgage lenders had introduced policy that meant declining to lend on properties without an EPC rating of C or above.
This move comes in an effort to reduce the costs that landlords might have had to incur being passed onto renters who are already struggling with the rising cost of living however many Green groups have rejected this stating that renters will instead have to foot the bill of heating poorly insulated homes.
It’s good news for landlords already dealing with lots of uncertainty in the mortgage market, but it might not translate to such good news for renters.
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