Buying a home with a low EPC

LAD917

I'm all for energy improvements, but some of the restrictions from conservation areas and for "ordinary" listed buildings need to change.  E.g., restriction on double-glazed windows.  It pained me - in an ordinary block with no special interest - to watch my neighbour put in single-glazed windows mandated by the council.  Including in the rear of the building, which is not visible at all from the street.  There's no reason why slimline double glazing (at minimum) shouldn't be permitted. 

Something's gotta give - either lower the requirements for conservation areas or listed buildings, or change the rules so that "C" is achievable.  To the OP, there are enough of us that I think something will give eventually.

Ramouth

Guidance such as building regs often have the words “where practicable” added to the clauses.  This allows for standards not to be met where costs would be overly prohibitive, or where the character of a listed building would be compromised.  I would expect a similar exception would apply in this scenario.

However, as others have said, you may want to consider if you really want to live in such a poorly performing home from a comfort point of view.

silvercar

Given that replacing light bulbs with broken LEDs can improve your EPC rating, I won’t take much notice of the grades at all.

AdrianC

silvercar said:

Given that replacing light bulbs with broken LEDs can improve your EPC rating, I won’t take much notice of the grades at all.

Replacing light bulbs with broken LEDs will save a full 100% of the electricity consumption of the old bulbs, so that sounds very energy-saving to me.

Section62

LAD917 said:

Including in the rear of the building, which is not visible at all from the street.

Visibility from the street has nothing to do with listing. Many listed buildings cannot be seen from any street, and the most valuable features of some buildings can only be seen inside.

Its like arguing that museums and archives should only take care of items they have on public display.

LAD917 said:

There's no reason why slimline double glazing (at minimum) shouldn't be permitted.

Something's gotta give - either lower the requirements for conservation areas or listed buildings, or change the rules so that "C" is achievable.  To the OP, there are enough of us that I think something will give eventually.

You might want to do some more research on listing and conservation areas.

Usually conservation officers are quite happy to work with a homeowner to find solutions that work, but don't destroy important features and result in something sympathetic to the building and/or surroundings.

There is no blanket ban on double glazing for example. Each case will be considered on its own merits. What you won't get is a change of policy so 'slimline double glazing' is always allowed - because in some cases the windows and/or glass is one of the most important features of a listed building.

Section62

AdrianC said:

In practice, most buyers recognise that EPCs are pretty much useless.

We just need to wait for governments and mortgage lenders to twig what most sensible buyers have already figured out.

Setting hard and fast thresholds for something based on arbitrary assessments against poor criteria is a guaranteed way of creating perverse incentives and encouraging people to spend money on ineffective improvements whilst disfiguring attractive buildings.

Madness.

LAD917

Section62 said:

Visibility from the street has nothing to do with listing. Many listed buildings cannot be seen from any street, and the most valuable features of some buildings can only be seen inside.

True. The flats / buildings I'm referring to have nothing original other than the front facade. They're listed as part of a group of similar buildings that together give an impression of a typical Victorian terrace. They aren't distinctive - they could be anywhere in the UK, and there are thousands of other buildings that look almost exactly like them. The inside is a 1980s rebuild. My council has taken a hard stance on single glazing - even in situations like this. Luckily, at least I was allowed to exhaust a gas boiler through the (non-original) rear facade. My front-facing neighbours were stuck with electric heat because they weren't able to exhaust a gas boiler through the facade. These properties will forever have EPCs in the E/F range until the council takes more reasonable stances.

I do think property owners in conservation areas / listed buildings deserve some clarity now as to whether we will be given an exemption from EPC requirements, or whether rules will change giving us a realistic path to C. I would also like to see the burden shift, with certain energy efficient improvements allowed by default unless the council can prove it would seriously harm the character of the building. Is it better for the planet for rows of fairly standard Victorian terraces to have single-glazed windows (many of which cannot be seen from public land) so an erudite <1% of the population can admire the "beauty" of single-pane glass, or better to have something more energy efficient that looks the same to 99+% of people and still preserves the character of the neighbourhood? We're not talking about the Mona Lisa (or about uPVC!).

AdrianC

LAD917 said:

True. The flats / buildings I'm referring to have nothing original other than the front facade. They're listed as part of a group of similar buildings that together give an impression of a typical Victorian terrace.

Have you actually done a search to see what's really listed about them?
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/

The conservation officer at the local authority shouldn't be being too harsh on non-relevant details. So - if it is as you describe - then the facade, yes. The rear elevation, no.

FreeBear

LAD917 said: I do think property owners in conservation areas / listed buildings deserve some clarity now as to whether we will be given an exemption from EPC requirements, or whether rules will change giving us a realistic path to C.

Listed buildings and those in a conservation area are already exempt from having an EPC if the recommend "improvements" would unacceptably alter their character or appearance. So internal & external wall insulation would be out, as would solar panels.

LAD917

AdrianC said:
Have you actually done a search to see what's really listed about them?

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/

The conservation officer at the local authority shouldn't be being too harsh on non-relevant details. So - if it is as you describe - then the facade, yes. The rear elevation, no.

Yes, I've done the research - the listing only describes the front facades (and make it clear that many of the homes already have some original details compromised).  My experience has been a nightmare - ridiculous specificity on rear windows, the colour and details of a rear safety railing, endless scrutiny of very minor interior footprint modifications when none of it is original.  Maybe I live in a bad council, had a moody conservation officer, or should have pushed more.