EPCs for council property

MissLFC

I had the Warm Homes Discount prior to the inclusion of EPCs. I have chronic illnesses, some symptoms are made worse by cold weather. I live in a council property, most of the houses on my row are council properties. All of them have EPCs on the gov website. One neighbour has a rating of C the other has a rating of F, they are both council. My home is not listed. Is this something the council would sort out or something I am meant to do? I can't find any information about it on their website.

Spoonie_Turtle

The only reason EPCs are mentioned for the WHD is they are a source for two required pieces of information: the age of the house, and the size.  (Type is also on there but that I believe can be found on land registry data, plus for people just wanting to know whether they should be eligible, it's self-evident whether the property is semi-detached, terraced, a flat, etc.)  The actual rating is irrelevant.

The way it's meant to work is if the government don't have all three pieces of information about the property, they can infer from surrounding properties, and only if that goes wrong should someone need to get in contact and provide the information.

What type of property do you live in, and do you have any idea how large it is (in square metres or feet), and how old?

MissLFC

It's mid-terrace, I think from late 60s early 70s & according to the EPC for the neighbours it's 90 square meters.

greyteam1959

Do you rent your property from the council ?
If so it is a legal requirement for the council to provide you with an EPC.
In fact they should not be renting the property to you without one.

MissLFC

greyteam1959 said:

Do you rent your property from the council ?
If so it is a legal requirement for the council to provide you with an EPC.
In fact they should not be renting the property to you without one.

Yes I rent from the council. I'm concerned about everyone having one but my property due to issues I have had with them in the past that required my local mp stepping in to resolve. I hate dealing with them.

Spoonie_Turtle

According to this year's table, you may *just* qualify.

EPC floor area of houses is increased by 14% to get the corresponding VOA value used in the energy costs calculation, and 90x 114% is 102.6.

So this is where your property should probably fall in the calculation

Image: screenshot of an excel table.  1965-82 mid-terrace property of 111-114m² has a High energy cost score.  Two rows below that show same age and type of propert with a smaller floor area (96-101 and 90-96m²) have a low energy cost score.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/warm-home-discount-eligibility-statement-england-and-wales-2023-to-2024-scheme-year-onward
And interestingly they've lowered the threshold for what counts as a high energy cost score, so more people should be eligible this year than last.  So you may not have qualified last year but probably should this year.

MissLFC

I contacted Shelter to see if the EPC is my responsibility or the councils because it bothers me that mine is the only council property not listed given things that have happened in the past. They said I don't need one but it's odd that the other council tenants have one which didn't help much!

Chrysalis

Spoonie_Turtle said:

According to this year's table, you may *just* qualify.

EPC floor area of houses is increased by 14% to get the corresponding VOA value used in the energy costs calculation, and 90x 114% is 102.6.

So this is where your property should probably fall in the calculation

Image: screenshot of an excel table.  1965-82 mid-terrace property of 111-114m² has a High energy cost score.  Two rows below that show same age and type of propert with a smaller floor area (96-101 and 90-96m²) have a low energy cost score.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/warm-home-discount-eligibility-statement-england-and-wales-2023-to-2024-scheme-year-onward
And interestingly they've lowered the threshold for what counts as a high energy cost score, so more people should be eligible this year than last.  So you may not have qualified last year but probably should this year.

I expect they underspent last year as some people got a letter who were not even billpayers so was unspent money.  So the changes this year make sense because of that.

HampshireH

Your council must provide a valid EPC when a new tenancy starts. So if you have lived in your home since before 2008 there is no obligation for them to have one (which I expect is what Shelter said)

However, many social landlords are getting them done as standard to plan works to bring properties up to a C before 2030. Likewise it has to be a minimum standard before a property can be relet when a tenancy ends.

If all your neighbours have one it could be due to three things

* They moved in since 2008
* They have been on the list to get one done
* They asked the council who obliged 

If your tenancy is more recent then yes you should have had one at the time.

MissLFC

HampshireH said:

Your council must provide a valid EPC when a new tenancy starts. So if you have lived in your home since before 2008 there is no obligation for them to have one (which I expect is what Shelter said)

However, many social landlords are getting them done as standard to plan works to bring properties up to a C before 2030. Likewise it has to be a minimum standard before a property can be relet when a tenancy ends.

If all your neighbours have one it could be due to three things

* They moved in since 2008
* They have been on the list to get one done
* They asked the council who obliged 

If your tenancy is more recent then yes you should have had one at the time.

Yes, been here since before 2008 but so have neighbours. Shelter didn't say anything about 2008, just the type of tenancy meant it wasn't needed. Thanks for the info.

HampshireH

To add if the Council have carried out works on a property such as window upgrades, insulation upgrades, roof replacement or heating upgrades they may opt to get an EPC done off the back of it too.

Forgot to say that before so your neighbours may also fall into that bracket.

But if you are worried then call your council and ask what their asset management policy and weather you can have an EPC done if you feel you need one