Free loft insulation

nph

Please could you help? I am a landlord and have been advised that there is inadequate loft insulation in the property I rent out. My tenant is in receipt of benefits and completed an eligibility check on the local green homes grant provider which in this case is Eon for the Great Yarmouth area.  She has been told she qualifies but when I have contacted Eon they have said that landlord grants are not available in this area.  Is there any other way I could receive funding for this? This would benefit me as the property owner and the tenant in reducing her bills? 

FreeBear

Ring the local council and ask to speak to the Warm Homes team - They may be able to assist or signpost you in the right direction, but.....

Loft insulation is not very expensive, and the rent you charge in one month will more than cover the cost of a few rolls from B&Q or Wickes. Rather than looking at it as an expense, view it as in investment that will improve your EPC rating and reduce your tenants heating bills. As a landlord, you really don't have much of an excuse.

matelodave

Can you not offset the cost of insulation against your taxable income from the rental, it is after all maintenance of a sort. Adding to it is an improvement but replacing it could be construed as a repair

As said above the cost of insulation isn't actually very expensive but have a look here - does the old stuff need replacing because it's now deteriorated and the replacement is perhaps a bit thicker because it now has to be done to the latest legal building standards. 

BIM46925 - Specific deductions: repairs and renewals: what is a repair: changing technology

In the same way as the use of more modern materials does not necessarily mean work is an improvement (see BIM46920), the use of new technology as part of a repair does not necessarily mean the repair becomes an improvement.

In such circumstances, the position is that:

• the work is a repair and not an improvement if after the work is carried out, the asset can just do the same job as before;
• the work is an improvement and disallowable, as it is capital if, as a result of the work, more can be done with the asset, or the asset can be used to do something that it could not do before.

When the work is done can be important in deciding whether changes in technology have led to an improvement. As technology changes over time, something that would be accepted as an improvement in year one may by year five be simply a repair. This is because that technology is no longer seen as an improvement and is simply what is used for the job; it has become the industry standard for that type of work. Using that technology does not change the character of the building.

One example of this is double glazing. At one time, replacing single glazed windows with double glazing was an improvement. Over time, double glazing became the industry norm. This meant that replacing single glazing with double glazing ceased to be an improvement, and capital expenditure, and became allowable expenditure for tax purposes as it was simply replacing like with currently available like.