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In this issue:
Welcome to the first edition of the 2022 Coventry City Council Landlord newsletter.
Do you have properties to rent in Coventry?
We offer guaranteed rent and other benefits to private sector landlords who want to work with the Council by providing tenancies in order to alleviate homelessness in the city. This includes a payment of up to 5 weeks' rent as a deposit.
Let’s rent is a completely free service.
We will guarantee rent payments up to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate for the period of the tenancy (up to 2 years).
We will make a bonus one-off payment of an additional month’s rent at the end of each successful year.
For more information visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/letsrentcoventry
Email the team LetsRentCoventry@coventry.gov.uk
The Housing Enforcement and Property Licensing Team has been gathering your feedback through the HMO Form Feedback survey for last 6 months. We asked questions about your experience with applying for an HMO licence and using our webform. Based on your responses, we decided to make several changes to the webform and we will be implementing a new software to speed up the process. The new system will reduce data entry, will be more user friendly and we are convinced that it will improve and simplify customers’ experience.
The implementation and data transfer is a comprehensive process and it will take several months until it is completed. We hope that the new software will be fully finalised by mid-2022.
We would like to thank all the landlords and agents who took their time to complete the survey.
As covered in our last newsletter the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) places a requirement on all landlords of privately rented properties to ensure that their properties reach at least an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E before they let it to a tenant unless they have registered a relevant exemption.
Failure to do so could mean, a landlord is committing an offence and is at risk of receiving a financial penalty.
Coventry City Council are investigating all properties within the borough with an EPC rating of F or G. We are using all possible avenues to obtain evidence in an attempt to establish whether those properties are privately rented and do not have a valid exemption. Where this is the case, the landlord could be in breach of the MEES Regulations. We are finding a significant proportion of properties that appear to potentially be in breach.
Landlords are therefore advised to check that the EPCs for their properties are both valid (under 10 years old) and compliant (has a rating of E or above) or register a relevant exemption as a matter of urgency.
We would advise landlords to treat raising the energy efficiency of their rental properties as ongoing, to ensure that they are providing the best possible living conditions for tenants whilst remaining compliant with the current standards. The government has indicated that properties could be required to be rated Band C or above by as soon as 2030. For future guidance and updates on any future changes please review the Private Rented Property minimum energy efficiency standards.
Before registering an exemption, please check the evidence requirements for the PRS Exemptions register. You must ensure you provide sufficient written evidence for an exemption.
When registering an exemption, landlords must have installed as many recommended energy efficiency measures as possible to make progress towards EPC E rating (up to the value of £3,500, including VAT).
By registering an invalid exemption, you could be committing an offence subject to a financial penalty of up to £1000.
If Landlords grant a new tenancy or continue to let the property after 1st April 2020 with an invalid exemption, they would be committing an offence and subject to a financial penalty of up to £4000.
A property has an F rating of on its EPC.
The recommended measures to improve the energy efficiency are:
- Internal or external wall insulation
- High heat retention storage heaters
- Add additional 80mm jacket to hot water cylinder
- Low energy lighting for all fixed outlets
However, an exemption has been registered against this property claiming that ‘all relevant improvements have been made.’
The supporting evidence provided is a site audit from a building-based maintenance contractor. The site audit lists all the improvements that have been carried out at the property:
- New kitchen installed with extractor fan and electric oven
- 2 light fittings replaced and updated
- New blackout blind fitted
Is this a valid exemption?
No, there are no details of costs or installation dates provided and most of the improvements that have been under-taken are not on the list of recommendations from the EPC.
Remember if you submit false or misleading information against a registered exemption, you could be committing an offence and receive a £1000 fine.
How do you submit an exemption correctly?
It is important to review the list of recommendations on the current EPC.
From the registered F rated EPC, there are works evident that could be done for less than the £3,500 spending cap. These works included:
- Recommendation 2: Add additional 80 mm jacket to hot water cylinder Typical installation cost £15 - £30
- Recommendation 4: Low energy lighting Typical installation cost £30
- Recommendation2: High heat retention storage heaters Typical installation cost £1,200 - £1,800
What do you need to look out for?
It is important to provide relevant supporting documentation:
- Details, including date of installation and cost, of all recommended energy efficiency improvements which have been made at the property in compliance with the Regulations (up to the value of £3,500).
- Copies of quotations from 3 different accredited installers each showing that the cost of purchasing and installing the recommended improvement exceeds £3500 (inc VAT).
- A report prepared by an independent expert such as a surveyor, or relevant accredited installer stating the recommended energy efficiency measure is not considered to be a relevant due to the potential impact on the fabric or structure of the building.
- A copy of any correspondence and/or relevant documentation demonstrating that consent for a relevant energy efficiency measure was required and sought, and that this consent was refused, or was granted subject to a condition that the landlord was not able to comply with.
How not to get caught out submitting a false exemption?
Landlords of EPC F or G properties who cannot access third-party funding must find funding from elsewhere (whether self-funding, loan, mortgage extension, etc) and ensure that energy efficiency improvements are made in order to improve these properties to EPC E, or as close as possible, up to a total cost of £3,500 (inc. VAT). Although, analysis suggests that the average cost of improving an EPC F or G rated property to band E is £1,200.
Landlords could find it difficult to obtain quotes from 3 different accredited installers. If you decide to register the ‘high-cost exemption’, you must obtain 3 quotes before you register this exemption otherwise it will be an invalid exemption that could be subject to enforcement action.
You are free to install any energy efficiency measure(s). However, if your chosen improvements do not appear in the list of ‘recommended energy efficiency improvements’ and they fail to improve your property to EPC E. You will not be able to let the property or register an ‘all relevant improvements made’ exemption. You will need to make further attempts to improve the rating to a minimum of E, in order to let the property.
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