A recent ARLA survey revealed that more than one in ten landlords have one or more properties that fall into the bottom EPC categories, with an F or G rating.
This could have serious consequences: the government is proposing a minimum standard of energy efficiency for rental properties from April 2018 and it is likely that this will be set at an E rating. If the proposals go ahead, more than 10% of landlords could find their properties banned from the rental market.
The ARLA research showed that half of UK landlords hadn’t heard of the Government’s flagship Green Deal energy policy.
Under current legislation, landlords can claim a tax allowance of up to £1500 each tax year for certain energy saving measures, including loft insulation and draft proofing. Alan Ward, chair of the Residential Landlords Association called for the allowance to be increased to £14,000 and extended beyond its current 2015 expiry date.
On 31 May 2012 HMRC announced they would be launching a special task force to recover up to £17m in unpaid tax from private landlords. In recent months, HMRC has been directing more resources to such specialist teams, who use increasingly sophisticated methods, including pooling information from across government departments, to track down those who have been paying insufficient tax. Buy to Let is one of the latest sectors to be targeted.
