When am I exempt from the minimum EPC requirements?

Currently, Landlords are required to have a minimum EPC rating of E prior to letting a property and the certificate must be provided to the tenant.

However, there are certain circumstances when you will be exempt and these are explored in this blog.

The cost cap

You will never be required to spend more than £3,500 (including VAT) on energy efficiency improvements. If you can’t get the property up to a grade E, you will normally need to do as much work as possible to a maximum of £3,500 and then apply for an exemption. It is also worth noting that the cost cap remains if you have received funding.

Previous improvements

When you are calculating the spend, you can also factor in any costs you have previously incurred in relation to energy efficiency. For this spend to be taken into consideration it must have been incurred after October 2017.

All improvements made exemption

The work you will need to do will be that which has been identified on the EPC certificate, the requirement is to do as much of that as possible, within the cap and then register for an all improvements made exemption, which you can do here.

The exemption will last for 5 years and at that point you will need to complete the work required to achieve a E rating or above or register for a further exemption.

High-cost exemption

This is a relatively straightforward exemption and applies if the cost of the cheapest recommended measure would exceed £3,500. As you might expect you will need to produce evidence of the costs, however, once you have done so the exemption will be for a five-year period.

Other exemptions

There are also a number of exemptions including;

·       Where you can’t get consent for the work from a relevant third party (e.g. freeholder)

·       If the proposed work would devalue the property by more than 5%

·       If insulation would damage the fabric of the building and it is the only required improvement

All of these exemptions come with ‘strings attached’ and you can read the detail on the government's website.