EPC grade F on rented property listing?

brownbabygirl

does this grade F actually mean anything in practice? i am thinking it probably means the house will be cold as hell in winter unless the heating is constantly on. i might be wrong so wanting to hear of experiences with low EP homes. thanks

clark24

I would imagine single glazed windows, thin or no loft insulation, old or no boiler (could be Rayburn etc), inadequate or no wall insulation and regular lightbulbs! (cos those pesky non eco friendly lightbulbs apparently are very upsetting to EPC blokes)

There are quite a few rentals round my way with bad EPC ratings but I live in a rural farming community where most are old knackered farm cottages which haven't been made aware of the 21stC or to drag them into it is more than the LL can afford/be bothered to do.



It is almost definite it will be more costly and harder to efficiently heat, but the govt is apparently on a mission to bring all properties up to a C by 2015 (according to the bloke who did my EPC last week) so there are many grants and schemes you can apply for that get you free 'stuff' to up your rating so if you love a place with a bad rating check with the LL about the possibility of improving it

clark24

or it may have been bring them up to a D, I was too busy oogling his bum to pay attention ......

Dan-Dan

brownbabygirl wrote: »

i am thinking it probably means the house will be cold as hell

Interesting phrase

Nocturnes

We rented a place that was an "F" or "G" during last winter and it was freezng. No insulation in loft or walls, old boiler so heating was completely inadequate, damp and mould (indoor patches where there was missing masonry outside on single layer brick wall). It turned out that a steady stream of tenants left for the same reason (neighbour told us as we were moving out!) after nearly every Winter. We were not aware of the EPC when we rented there. So for our next place, we decided not to get anything below a D on the EPC.

Fast forward to now. We are in a supposedly newly renovated place with a D EPC, stating that there is 250mm of insulation in loft. There is hardly any insulation up there. There was no ladder for us to inspect before we signed up, and we stupidly believed the EPC (we presume the inspector never looked up there either and just took the LL's word for it). We will see how this Winter goes, as so far, silence from LL and LA on the matter when we queried it.

In future we will inspect the roof space before we rent (or buy) and not rely on the EPC.

dimbo61

Had my house inspected by a nice man doing the EPC and he did look up in the loft.
He even brought his own ladder and big torch to check.
I had all the paperwork to prove we had cavity wall insulation + 10 inches of Loft insulation, energy saving lighting bulbs, modern A rated double glazing, ECOTEC combi boiler, so we got a B rating.
Only way to get A rated is with solar panels to generate electric

dimbo61

PS house is very warm, BUT the house is so well sealed at times we had to open windows, use trickle vents to stop MOULD/Condensation in house