What is the minimum temperature that a rental property must be?

Emily_Joy

macman said:

Emily_Joy said:

MobileSaver said:

Adding a £15 electric fan heater to a room would probably increase the temperature enough to reach 18 degrees.

How much it will add to the bill? 

How is that relevant? If you want to increase the ambient temp, you have to spend more on heating, whether the heat source is supplied by the OP or the LL, unless the rent includes the utilities.

It is relevant because electric fan heaters are not fit for the purpose. If you want to be warm and comfortable while reading a book (or any other sedentary activity) it is better to get an electric blanket. If you want to be comfortable while doing some physical work - then 18th degrees is not really necessary.

markin

Previews threads have pointed out that Low energy bills usually seems to to come with High rent, So its always the user that will pay for heat in the end.

A LL giving you an electric heater seems to satisfy most government agencies.

tightauldgit

I don't think there is a set temp, I think it just says something like the landlord must provide adequate heating in working order. If the heating system is broken I think they are obliged to fix it, but they can as others say just supplement with portable heaters or whatever. 

There's no requirement for you to be able to afford to use the heating or for it to heat the house at the best cost or whatever so the cost of running a heater isn't relevant to whether the LL has complied with the law.

First step would be talk to the LL if your house is cold though. They may want to help.

dimbo61

In the last 12 months by Gas has increased  from 3.3p per unit till nearly 20p per unit.
That is a 500% increase in Gas costs.
Plus a 350% increase in electric costs.
Now the government talks about reasonable costs to heat a home but much of the UK housing stock is EPC band  D/E or worse.
For years Governments both Conservative and  Labour have failed to push builders to build Eco friendly homes with an A or B rating and now they want all Landlords to improve properties  available  for Rent to Band C or better.
This will costs thousands per property 

ComicGeek

dimbo61 said:

In the last 12 months by Gas has increased  from 3.3p per unit till nearly 20p per unit.
That is a 500% increase in Gas costs.
Plus a 350% increase in electric costs.
Now the government talks about reasonable costs to heat a home but much of the UK housing stock is EPC band  D/E or worse.
For years Governments both Conservative and  Labour have failed to push builders to build Eco friendly homes with an A or B rating and now they want all Landlords to improve properties  available  for Rent to Band C or better.
This will costs thousands per property 

The energy price cap on gas is currently 10p/kWh + VAT, not 20p. If it was 20p/kWh it would focus people's attention alot more on what they buy/rent.

I can't remember the last new build project I worked on that didn't achieve a B rating or higher, and we do hundreds and hundreds of new build EPCs each year. Probably 8 years ago????

The current Building Regs are tough, and definitely produce energy efficient homes. The concentration has to be on the existing poorly performing housing stock - the government's approach at the moment is akin to a school concentrating all of their efforts on the single clever kid to push their average results up, rather than focusing on bringing up the lower level kids.

Personally I think it would be more reasonable to set the renting standard to D rather than C - that would be a good compromise between cost of upgrades and running costs. The knee jerk setting of C will cause problems (particularly as they keep changing the scoring system!!).

skintbanker

There is no legal minimum (or maximum).  Landlord has to provide 'adequate heating' but this could be in any format, eg oil radiators, fan/blower heaters.