Since April 2020, no landlord or agent has been allowed to rent out a property with an energy rating lower than E. The Domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) Regulations set a minimum energy efficiency level for rented homes. The penalty for breaking the law* could be anywhere between £10,000 to £150,000 per breach.
You might think that no landlord or agent would ignore this law, then. But because the risk of detection is low and demand for homes is high, some landlords haven’t bothered to invest in improving thermal efficiency. And some agents are still willing to advertise and to manage these sub-standard properties.
The law is on your side but in practice, it’s up to you, dear renter, to protect your health and your bank balance. The landlord/their agent must give you a copy of the EPC at the start of your tenancy but you can find details of the Energy Performance Certificate on the gov.uk website. It’s wise to do this before you sign a tenancy agreement.
When a house is not listed on that register, it’s highly likely that the energy performance of the address is too low to be rented out legally. The lower the energy performance rating of a home, the more it will cost you to keep warm there. And the kind of landlord who is willing to flout the law and rent out a home with EPC F or G, is very often the same kind of landlord who is unresponsive to any repair issues which might arise during your tenancy.
*The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015.
Lewisham renters
A couple of weeks ago, Renters’ Rights London met with Councillors in Lewisham to discuss work underway in the borough. Lewisham Council is working to optimize their offer to private renters. As you probably know, local government is vested with very significant powers (but not much money) to ensure that homes rented from private landlords meet the legal standard.
Lewisham Council has established a Scrutiny Task and Finish Group, currently gathering insights into the challenges faced by private renters. The next step will be to assess the effectiveness of existing services. Then, to identify areas for improvement.
Renters’ Rights London has been out and about in Lewisham, talking to renters in SE6 and SE13 to ensure our knowledge is up-to-date. But there’s always more to learn so if you know something about renting in Lewisham, please get in touch? And if you possibly can, do please support to this work by contributing a response to the Lewisham Council consultation yourself? Here’s the link
If you live in LB Wandsworth
You’ll know that there is an acute shortage of genuinely affordable homes there. A huge amount of recent development has created a surplus of luxury for sale but failed to meet the real local need for decent, affordable homes. Historically, over the past decade, developers were permitted to build out with just 18% affordable, with only 7% of that social housing.
Since the change of administration in 2022, the situation has improved. The current Homes for Wandsworth Plan states that that 35% of a development must be affordable. Now, the council is keen to further increase the requirement on developers and deliver a higher percentage of affordable homes.
To that end, Wandsworth Council is consulting on a partial review of their Local Plan, a legal document that sets out their long-term planning. They want to developers to include 50% affordable homes, with 70% of those to be social housing and the other 30% intermediate (e.g. shared ownership) in all developments. This would apply not just to large-scale development but to every site.
What do you think of that, Wandsworth renters? Your local council wants to know. Here’s the link to the consultation
The role of art in the housing crisis
