How To Improve Your EPC Rating

With the impacts of climate change becoming ever more evident, and fast-rising energy costs, more and more renters are moving “energy-efficient” towards the top of their list of desired rental features. Despite this, when it comes to making improvements on the property landlords historically haven’t prioritised eco-friendly options. The costs involved are too steep and they don’t realise the difference this can make to the marketability and value of their property.

However, with the proposal to shift all rental properties to an EPC rating of C and above by 2030 making your rental property has now been confirmed. We take a look at some of the key benefits of improving your EPC rating, a selection of suggestions for improving your EPC rating and a few options for funding the improvements necessary to upgrade your property for the new EPC regulations before they come into effect as laid out by the government.

Benefits of making your property more eco-friendly

When someone talks about improving the eco-friendly nature of property often people’s minds jump immediately to a vision of solar panels. However, despite various government grants the cost of solar panels is prohibitive, and recouping that cost can take a great deal of time.

However, there are smaller, more justifiable improvements that can be made to a property, from installing a smart thermostat to reducing drafts and improving window glazing. These adjustments will not only increase the overall EPC rating of your property but actually make the property more appealing to prospective tenants. It will reduce their overall energy costs, and make the home more comfortable and pleasant to live in. Both of which are factors that could influence a tenant to stay in the property for another year removing the need for you to go through the time-consuming and sometimes expensive process of replacing them.

Why are these EPC changes being implemented?

The UK government recently committed the country to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 78% by 2035. Housing has been identified as a key area where potential savings could be made.

As such, the UK government introduced a minimum EPC rating that every buy-to-let property must achieve to be deemed suitable for habitation and in order for you to legally be able to let it out.

Additionally, as consumers and tenants become increasingly more environmentally conscious tenants are increasingly looking for more energy-efficient rentals. Having a higher EPC rating will not only benefit your tenant’s pockets but allow them to live more sustainably which is a big draw for some.

How to make a rental property more energy efficient

New buildings are all designed to be eco-friendly with good insulation in the walls and roof as well as double – or even triple-glazing. Older buildings though particularly period ones tend to be draughty, with ill-fitting doors, and single glazed sash windows, which, whilst beautiful, leak heat like sieves. Installing double glazing or fitted shutters is just one easy way to improve an old building EPC rating.

As we mentioned, solar panels are an obvious option, but they aren’t always possible, may not be suitable for you let, and are rarely the cheapest option. Here are 5 more ways that you can consider to make your property more energy-efficient.

1. Install a new boiler

Old boilers are notoriously inefficient, they are also liable to breaking (maintenance fees can end up costing more than a new boiler in some cases!), and just less effective than newer designs. For all of these reasons, new boilers are a big draw for new tenants. Nobody wants an elderly boiler that gives out after ineffectively heating the building in the dead of winter. We’ve all been there, and we’ve all hated it.

2. Insulating loft spaces and cavity walls

Something as simple as properly insulating your loft can have a huge impact on energy bills. Insulating an older home could save tenants hundreds annually. Plus, the impact of the current insulation is poor or non-existent, is instantaneous. Your tenants will very quickly notice the warmth that the new insulation retains.

And don’t miss out on an opportunity to save money – always make sure to check with your local council to see if they have any grants or schemes in place for landlords.

3. Upgrade to double glazing

If you haven’t already, upgrading a property’s windows to double or even triple glazing can help reduce the overall energy needed to keep it warm. This can make a big difference in the overall properties of energy efficiency.

4. Eco-bulbs

We all know the bulbs that take an age to turn on and give off an inadequate orange glow that fails to really light up a room. We don’t mean those. The technology behind energy-efficient bulbs has improved massively over the last few years and they are now similar in effectiveness to non-eco-friendly ones, only they use far less energy.

It’s well worth focusing on bulbs because people are bad at remembering to turn them off, notoriously bad.

5. Smart meters

Smart metres can help reduce energy consumption and bills, particularly in winter. They give you much more complete control over your energy consumption – carefully and accurately monitoring gas and electricity readings and allowing careful adjustments to the system from your smartphone – even when you’re not at home.

A sample table of recommended property improvements from the EPC report

These measures will improve the energy performance of your dwelling. The performance ratings after improvements listed below are cumulative, that is, they assume the improvements have been installed in the order that they appear in the table.

Source: Domestic private rented property: minimum energy efficiency standard – landlord guidance

Funding schemes and grants for landlords to improve EPC ratings

For the EPC upgrades required by the last implementation (introducing minimum EPC rating of E), there was a cost cap of £3,500 (including VAT) on energy efficiency improvements. This means landlords were only required to spend up to this amount when making improvements to a buy-to-let property’s energy efficiency.

Landlords were then exempt from further work through an exemption. However, for the 2030 cap is likely to be greatly increased or removed.

Thankfully, there are several grants available for landlords, including:

• Energy Company Obligation grant scheme
• Labour's National Warm Homes Plan
• Great British Insulation Scheme
• Boiler Upgrade Scheme

These are just a few of the available schemes and grants to help landlords fund energy efficiency improvements. Do you own research to find the schemes that are right for your property's needs and that you qualify for.

Final Words

In order to let your property at this time you need to have a valid EPC rating of E or above. If you don’t you will be required to make the necessary improvements not doing so could result in fines.

It’s a good idea to start planning for the future and looking at improvements that you can make over the next few years on your property to bring it up from an E or D to a C by 2030. The improvements required could quickly add up to a substantial cost so by panning for them now you can spread that cost out and mitigate the financial damages.

On a final note, getting an EPC rating can also be seen as an opportunity to make your property more desirable to renters helping you keep tenants happy and vacancy periods to a minimum thus actually saving you money in the long run.

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