Ridgewater can help!

Ridgewater Energy can help with that and much more. Fill out a short pro-forma and request a report from us and you will have a comprehensive document to serve as your route to MEES compliance.

What’s included?

• If you need an EPC we can compile one, but you can also use  your own.
• Current domestic MEES guidance and regulations
• Guide and link to the exemptions register
• ECO/Green Deal and local funding assistance
• EPC analysis
• ECO grant funding report
• Any exemptions to MEES identified

What are the costs?

If you have a current EPC the cost of the report is £109+VAT
If you require both an EPC and the report the cost is £179+VAT

Ridgewater can help!

As you may know the guidance for Landlords and Local Authorities on the minimum level of energy efficiency required to let domestic property under the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015 were released in October 2017.

These regulations set out that it is unlawful to let a property from 1st April 2018 if the energy performance certificate rating falls below a Band E. The regulations are clear that properties with an energy rating in band G or F are substandard.

The Government’s intention is to ensure that the energy efficiency of properties in the Private Rented Sector is improved to minimum levels.

Local Authorities have already started carrying out area by area audits of property condition and tenancies in relation to MEES, for example in the West Hill, Boscombe and Springborne areas of Bournemouth before moving across the borough.

They are imposing fixed penalty fines on landlords who have failed to act or adhere to the regulations, and the more identified hazards or MEES breaches, the higher the fines may become, up to £4000 in some cases.

Where an EPC is not in place when it should be, these will be referred to Trading Standards who will write to the landlord, before taking further action to ensure one is put in place and recommendations are addressed.

So now is the time to act if you haven’t already to ensure these regulations are met.

You should also be aware of the following points:

• Grant aid or funding is only possible where the property is occupied.
• It may not be possible once improvement notices have been served, to access funding due to the timescales involved.
• If you are replacing heating do not fit any type of electric heater unless it works on the off-peak tariff, preferably a high heat retention storage heater.
• If the property requires insulation then there is already no longer funding for F and G rated properties, so look at the D and E rated properties now before the Government stop funding for these too!
• From April 1st 2019 a requirement for a landlord to spend a minimum of £3500 per property backdated from September 2017 to meet the E rating has been introduced. All existing exemptions under the ‘No Upfront Cost’ principle will be made void if this amount has not been spent before April 2020.
• The requirement for a band D is expected in April 2025.
• All existing tenancies will need to be at a minimum of ‘E’ by April 2020.
• Landlords who are looking to remortgage their properties are started to be refused by many lenders if they are not at a D or E rating now.