Energy Performance Certificates and Listed Buildings

When letting out a property, it is a legal requirement that Landlords provide their tenants with an up-to-date Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) at the outset of the tenancy. However, this can cause concern for landlords of listed buildings which may have a low EPC rating.

Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES)

The Domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) Regulations set a minimum energy efficiency level for domestic private rented properties.

The Regulations apply to all domestic private rented properties that are:

• let on specific types of tenancy agreement
• legally required to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

How to find out if your property is covered by the regulations

To find out whether your property is covered by the Regulations, you can answer the questions below:

1. Is your property let on one of the following types of domestic tenancies:
   1. an assured tenancy?
   2. a regulated tenancy?
   3. a domestic agricultural tenancy?
   4. Is your property legally required to have an EPC?

If the property you let has been marketed for sale or let, or modified, in the past 10 years then it will probably be legally required to have an EPC.

How do the regulations affect your tenancy?

The MEES make it unlawful to grant new leases of properties with an F or G rating.  From 2023, these standards will also make subsisting lettings of F or G-rated commercial properties unlawful.

Listed buildings are exempt from the requirement to obtain EPCs “insofar as compliance with certain minimum energy performance requirements would unacceptably alter their character or appearance”.

To determine whether a particular property is exempt, a property owner will first need to work out:

1. what the potential or recommended energy efficiency improvement works are for the property and;
2. whether implementing those recommendations would unacceptably alter the character or appearance of the property.

It is likely that an EPC assessor will need to be instructed to evaluate this.

A property owner may wish to seek specialist advice on whether the energy efficiency improvements recommended by an EPC assessor would require listed building consent and, if so, whether such consent is likely to be refused.  If no consent is needed, or if it is expected to be granted, then it seems an EPC would be needed.

Where an EPC F or G rated privately rented property is not covered by the Regulations, for example a property which is not legally required to have an EPC, or one not let on a relevant tenancy type, an exemption will not be required.

Furthermore, properties which are covered by the Regulations, and which have been improved to a minimum of EPC E will not need to be registered on the Register.

Registering an exemption to MEES – domestic private landlords

There are various exemptions that apply to the prohibition on letting a property with an energy efficiency rating below E. If the property meets the criteria for any of the exemptions, you will be able to let it once you have registered the exemption on the PRS Exemptions Register.

The available exemptions are:

1. ‘High Cost’ Exemption
2. ‘7 Year Payback’ Exemption
3. ‘All Improvements Made’ Exemption
4. ‘Wall Insulation’ Exemption
5. ‘Consent’ Exemption
6. ‘Devaluation’ Exemption
7. ‘New Landlord’ Exemption

Guidance on the above exemptions and their respective evidence requirements has been published by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and can be found on the Government website.

On registering any exemption, the property owner will need to provide the following:

1. The address of the property in question
2. The type of exemption that they seek to register and their required evidence in support
3. A copy of a valid EPC for the property

However, depending on which exemption the property owner seeks to rely on, there may be additional information required.

To register the exemption, the agent or landlord will need to create an account on the Government website. Once the account is created, the property address, type of exemption to register and required evidence will need to be uploaded. Exemption data cannot be amended once the data has been submitted.

This registration is made on a self-certification basis and an exemption will apply from the point at which it is registered.

If you would like advice on your tenancy, please contact our litigation team on 01305 771 000.