Most rental properties do not have Energy Performance Certificates, an answer to a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
The request was put by Dave Timms, acting executive director of environmental charity 10:10 to the Department for Communities and Local Government. Timms asked about levels of compliance regarding EPCs.
The reply from CLG says that 26% of private domestic rental properties have EPCs, compared with 95% of properties put on the market for sale. Three-quarters (75%) of rental stock in the social housing sector has EPCs.
However, the CLG reply says that the figures, which relate to 2012, were “not quality assured in the normal manner of Government statistics. We are therefore unable to confirm the accuracy of the data or if the figures are statistically sound.”
CLG says it arrived at the data for the private rented sector by looking at the central EPC register and at data from the English Housing Survey, and it is based on “an estimated turnover in the private rented sector of new tenancy agreements per year”.
The letter also notes that since January this year, it has been a requirement that property adverts should include the EPC rating. The letter says: “This should help raise public awareness of what is required.”
10:10 said that CLG was “doing little to enforce the law on EPCs. Moreover, it has only a rough idea of how many estate agents are complying, and seems complacent about the widespread flouting of the rules.”
An EPC must be available whenever a property is sold or rented, and has a shelf life of ten years. Failure to produce an EPC can result in fines.
The fixed penalty is £200, with enforcement action having to be started within six months. It is not known how many fines have been issued.
While the legal responsibility for having an EPC rests with the landlord, it is the responsibility of a letting agent to be satisfied that an EPC has been commissioned for the property before marketing it for rent.
Alongside the landlord, the letting agent must also use all reasonable efforts to secure that the EPC is obtained for the property within seven days (or inside a maximum of 28 days if necessary).
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Comments
environmental charity 10:10
What the heck is that for then? Who funds it? Never seen a charity box for them in the pub"!! Lets guess, more tax payer cash down the drain?
Its been a long time since I read such a missleading piece of journalism.
CLG officials did not say "rental properties flout law on EPCs". They merely provided some statistics which they admitted themselves were rather dodgy. I could drive more than one bus through gaps in the assumptions used in making the conclusions in this release. Ray has already pointed out the most obvious fact that many tenants (most of ours) have been in situ since before the legislation came in to force. A quick trawl through rightmove actually shows that teh majority of properties have an EPC uploaded.
The full compliance data from the DECC letter to 10:10 is:
• Domestic sales: 95%
• Social housing rentals: 75%
• Private domestic rentals: 26%
• Non-domestic sales: 48%
• Non-domestic rentals: 39%
Surely increasing the penalty to £1000 and policing the requirement for an EPC would have the desired effect.
I suspect their data is inaccurate.
Counting the number of properties in the PRS and assuming they all turn over tenancies on an annual basis is flawed and shows a complete lack of understanding of how the industry works. We have several tenants who have been in situ since before the EPC regulations came in; there is no need to carry out an EPC until it is marketed again; I'm sure we are not on our own. There is a higher turnover of tenants on the bigger cities but out in the suburbs tenants seem to stay longer imho
Introducing legislation without the means to enforce it is a waste of time. The reputable agents comply incurring a cost for their landlords whilst the rogue agents and landlords carry on their merry way.
If there was a well publicised court case then perhaps the message would sink in although some landlords are still flouting the gas safety regulations but at least the penalties are much higher.
So many smaller agents flout this due to bad websites which don't allow for an EPC graph to be displayed. Trouble is nobody is policing it. Who do we report them to? Will any action be taken? We were told by an ex-Trading Standards employee that the TSI didn't really want to be the first one to risk a prosecution for fear of spending public money and worried that it might not succeeed!