EPC F or G rating - How can a tenant get their landlord to improve the rating?

essellbee

I moved in to a one bedroom first floor flat with yard in a converted stone walled barn in January 2013. The EPC expired in November 2018.
Heating was via night storage heaters and a woodburning stove - this has always been erratic and inefficient due to very poor insulation (especially in the roof) and windows

As required by law, a new EPC was commissioned for April 2020 and was published as "G" rating. Despite frequent requests to landlady, letting agent and council, no action was taken until September 2021 when the night storage heaters (rated "average" in the EPC) were replaced by newer ones, but nothing was done to improve the insulation (rated "very poor" or "poor" in the EPC).

A new EPC was then issued in October but at "F" is still well below the legal requirement but I am now told that because the landlady spent £3,500 on new storage heaters, she is now exempt from any further expense.

I have been told via email that the cheapest quote that the landlady had for installing insulation in the property was £33,500 although the amount quoted on the EPC to bring rating up from F to E for flat roof or sloping insulation would typically cost £850 to £1,500. However no person or company commissioned by my landlady or agent has entered the property so I cannot understand how costed quotes for such high amounts could have been drawn up without actually visiting the premises to establish measurements and requirements.  

Bearing in mind the length of time that this situation has existed and the huge expense of heating that just exits quickly through the walls, is any real way for tenants in this sort of situation to have access to appropriate protection or advice? 

I am a 73 year old woman, trying to survive on basic state pension, pension credit and housing benefit...

Thanks for any help or advice!

Regards, Susan

p00hsticks

In answer to the headline question - I'm afraid you can't. The landlady is perfectly within her rights to have applied for (and got) an exemption, which I believe will last for five years,  on the grounds that she's spent £3,500 on improvements. 

All you can really do is vote with your feet and look for somewhere else.....

canaldumidi

If an exemption was granted, he LL is underno obligation (for now) to do anything.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-private-rented-property-minimum-energy-efficiency-standard-landlord-guidance

justwhat

Why don't you move to another property that you are happy with?(these old houses will soon be unrentable, the way things are going )

lookstraightahead

What's the situation in the other flats? 

ProDave

These properties are going to have to be "solved" sooner or later to meet our emissions targets.  We can;t keep on pouring heat into them to leak straight out.  And as in this case, the cost of dragging them up to a barely acceptable standard is very high, and even then they are not good, just somewhat less bad.

As long as people keep on renting them and even buying them, not much will happen.  Really rental value and sale value should be related to running costs, with lousy old houses like this cheap to buy and cheap to rent (if they are even allowed to be let)

Sooner or later we need some sort of proper 21st century "slum clearance" project to demolish these old houses and rebuild with decent houses that have a future.

Section62

ProDave said:

Sooner or later we need some sort of proper 21st century "slum clearance" project to demolish these old houses and rebuild with decent houses that have a future.

Even the listed ones?

I would take "stone walled barn" to mean a building of historic or architectural interest.

I think you'd find a lot of objections to a developer's utopia of uniform little boxes packed in and knocked up for the least cost... which the closest the majority of people are going to get to "decent houses" if that strategy were pursued.

There are a lot of properties which really do need demolishing and rebuilding - but part of the problem with them is they are in areas where nobody wants to live.  The housing problem is much more fundamental than the cost of upgrading the insulation in older properties.

lookstraightahead

ProDave said:

These properties are going to have to be "solved" sooner or later to meet our emissions targets.  We can;t keep on pouring heat into them to leak straight out.  And as in this case, the cost of dragging them up to a barely acceptable standard is very high, and even then they are not good, just somewhat less bad.

As long as people keep on renting them and even buying them, not much will happen.  Really rental value and sale value should be related to running costs, with lousy old houses like this cheap to buy and cheap to rent (if they are even allowed to be let)

Sooner or later we need some sort of proper 21st century "slum clearance" project to demolish these old houses and rebuild with decent houses that have a future.

I live on a house 200 years old - please don't tell me you think new houses are decent (especially the ones built on flood plains etc)

or maybe this is just a wind up.

p00hsticks

ProDave said:

Sooner or later we need some sort of proper 21st century "slum clearance" project to demolish these old houses and rebuild with decent houses that have a future.

i wonder what the EPC of places such as 10 Downing street, Chequers, Balmoral and Buckingham Palace would be ?

TheJP

Could the EPC be wrong or falsified? 

My advice is if you aren't satisfied then move to somewhere with a better rating. The LL has satisfied the legal obligations.

Section62

p00hsticks said:

ProDave said:

Sooner or later we need some sort of proper 21st century "slum clearance" project to demolish these old houses and rebuild with decent houses that have a future.

i wonder what the EPC of places such as 10 Downing street, Chequers, Balmoral and Buckingham Palace would be ?

Demolish them all (including Windsor and Sandringham).

I'm sure Prince Charles would be delighted to design himself a collection of new eco-Palaces in their place.

Anyone know how much a decent house in Poundbury would set you back?