Energy Performance Certificates - Attention all Landlords!!!
From the 1st October 2008, EPCs on all remaining dwellings will be required on sale or rent. With the roll out of Home Information Packs (HIPs) across the residential sales market, the bulk of residential dwellings covered by the autumn deadline will arise in the private and social rented sectors.
Any private landlord would be well advised to voluntarily commission an EPC where they are involved in a new letting well before the deadline. Delays could mean lost rental income if there is a last minute search for qualified assessors to carry out the work.
Home Inspectors (HIs) and Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) are also responsible for producing EPCs for new sales listings for the sales market, and additional demand from Landlords may lead to a delay in obtaining the EPC. As the regulations require a tenant to have had sight of the EPC before a tenancy agreement is signed, any delay is costly.
The advice from NARHI to Landlords is to act now and get your EPC ordered through one of our members. Commissioning an EPC early before a new let will not matter, as the EPC is valid for ten years under the current regulations.
Energy Performance Certificates - Attention all sellers with houses for sale pre-hip!!!
1 October marks the final roll-out of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) to all buildings when the certificate will be extended to rented homes, commercial properties under 2,500m2 and all remaining homes for sale. This includes those homes that have been on the market before the introduction of Home Information Packs (HIPs). Sellers of homes who have not had to prepare a HIP will need to commission an EPC as soon as possible so they are to be able to comply with their duties in relation to EPCs from 1 October 2008.
From that date they will be under a duty to make an EPC available to a prospective purchaser at the earliest opportunity, and certainly when they provide any information in writing or when viewing takes place. An EPC will have to be made available before exchange of contracts in all cases, and given to the purchaser on completion.
