The planned regulations, laid in parliament yesterday, will ban all landlords from renting out properties that fail to meet minimum energy efficiency standards from April 2018 if they fail to take reasonable steps to address inefficiencies.
Director of NAPIT Certification, David Cowburn, said ‘This is an incredibly important piece of legislation for the industry. These plans will make energy efficiency improvements mandatory for a large portion of our most inefficient housing stock. Though it could have gone further, government have signaled their intentions by honoring the commitments they made in 2011 to tackle this important issue. I would urge installers, particularly those working under the Green Deal, to ensure their businesses are prepared to take full advantage of this potential area of energy efficiency growth’.
By 2018, both domestic and non-domestic landlords will be required to ensure their properties reach at least and EPC E rating or have installed improvements that could be funded using available Green Deal finance or subsidies available to pay for them, before granting a tenancy to new or existing tenants.
The regulations would also mean that, from April 2016, residential private landlords will not be able to unreasonably refuse consent to a tenant’s request for energy efficiency improvements to F and G rated homes where Green Deal finance or subsidies are available to pay for them.
To ensure you’re ready to take advantage of this legislation, you can find out more about the Green Deal Certification Scheme offered by NAPIT at: www.napit.org.uk/greendeal.asp
