A study by E.ON in to the changes in the rental market has shown that 2 thirds of landlords are not aware of the Minimum Energy Efficient Standards, or MEES, that will be coming in to effect next year. The research has shown that 2 out of three landlords are not aware of the changes that could prevent them from letting their properties when the new regulations take effect.
All rental properties as of April 2018 must be graded at E or higher as part of the new MEES regulations. If the Energy Performance Certificate for the residential properties do not reach this standard, then landlords could be prevented from letting them. With the new regulations a year away, E.ON conducted research in to how landlords are feeling about the regulations. A quarter of those that were asked said they didn’t know about the regulation changes. The study was carried out on 500 residential landlords in March this year and has revealed that 42% of the landlords were only vaguely aware of the regulations.
The research data also showed that 27% of the landlords don’t know what the current rating on the Energy Performance Certificate for their property. Nearly half of the participants have also said that they are unaware of what the penalties are for breaching the regulations when they come in to force next year. There is a potential penalty of 20% of the rateable value of the properties that breach the regulations three months after they come into effect, so it could be crucial for landlords to know about the risks of not meeting the regulations.
Housing data from the Government already shows that private rented sector properties mostly fall in to F and G bands. Therefore, it is vitally important that the majority of landlords check what changes they need to make to meet the regulation standards before April 2018.
