ARLA has furiously slated Government lack of support of the private rented sector while “billions of pounds” have been given in grant aid to social landlords.
ARLA made its scathing views clear in its response to a government consultation on plans to amend energy efficiency rules in the private rented sector.
The Government has proposed that private landlords should pay where funding is unavailable to improve Band F and G properties.
ARLA Propertymark says it disagrees with the proposal: “Billions of pounds have been given in grant aid to social landlords whereas private landlords have barely benefited from any funding.
“This is because Energy Company Obligation (ECO) funding is more difficult and costly to implement when applied to the private rented sector.
“For example, one social housing provider with 1,000 units, compared to 1,000 private rented sector landlords with one unit, is a more cost-effective way for ECO companies to deliver their obligation.
“To balance out the funding that has been made available, funding to social housing should now be stopped, and all future funding should be dedicated to supporting the private rented sector.”
In the same response to the consultation, ARLA also rejects proposals to cap costs of improving sub-standard private rented property at £2,500.
ARLA says this figure is far too high “and will further increase the financial burdens on landlords who will pass the costs on to tenants through higher rents”.
It estimates that tenants would be paying £405 a year more, in return for “meagre savings on their [energy] bills”.
ARLA has also criticised the Government’s impact assessment, saying that “a lot of the information” is not up to date, with some evidence being 15 years old, and that cost calculations are “wildly under-estimated”.
It further criticises the Government’s assertion that 68% of landlords do not use agents, saying that at least 60% of private rented properties are managed by agents.
From next month, landlords and agents will be unable to offer properties with the lowest EPC ratings to new tenants.
But with the clock ticking down to the deadline, it appears many landlords are unaware of the changes – see the story lower down today’s news schedule.
Comments (6)
Not being a letting agent can someone confirm, that rather like a listed property being offered for sale where no EPC is required, does a listed property require an EPC when offered for rent.
A listed property can be exempt. You need certification confirming its exemption, as not possible to improve its rating if rented.
It would appear that a listed property IS required to have an EPC. If the listed property is in bands F & G and cannot be improved without effecting the value or appearance detrimentally then an exemption may be registered! The logic here is simply that a S21 notice is likely to fail if the EPC is not provided to the tenant; bit of a can of worms me thinks!
And how many people know that social housing landlords be it a private landlord sanctioned by a local authority under the premise of emergency housing (HMO) or housing association are exempt from many requirement that the private sector have to comply with.
Hmm? Equality? What’s that?
Really its the private landlords with only a few properties that need the help! I’ve got a landlord who has just had tenants leave from two of his older properties, and is faced with a bill of nearly £5k to barely get them to an E, but he is trying to get them higher on the assumption that within the next 12-18months the government will put the minimum up again! And lets face it, it’s not like the social housing landlords are likely to have a mortgage they need to pay…
And he knew nothing about it until I told him!
Although a cap is a good idea, it should be set at two months rent, if a property is rented for £500 then it would be £1,000. for the bigger, more expensive properties it would be higher. This is simply because the larger the rent, the more margin the landlord should have to be able to cover the costs, and some companies will allow you to spread the payments and take 0% interest payments to help spread it out.
It’s time to stop punishing the private sector!
Well if you are a landlord not using a letting agent, how are you supposed to know. This change in legislation hasn’t exactly been made public, government tend to sneak these changes through to save the public outrage.