What You Need To Know About The 2025 Compulsory EPC Band

From 2025, all domestic private rented properties must have a compliant Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), with a rating of band C or above, at the point of advertisement for rent. In 2021, changes to the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards were announced, which means landlords may have to conduct refurbishments and upgrade old equipment.

What Work Will Landlords Have to Undertake?

Landlords will have to employ a range of energy efficiency measures. This might involve:

Insulating walls and roof
installing energy-efficient lighting, such as LEDs
installing an energy-efficiency boiler

What Is An EPC Certificate?

An EPC is a rating of how energy-efficient a property is. The rating is of A-G bands, with A being the most efficient.
A valid EPC must be obtained when a property is sold or rented as a new-build property so prospective buyers know the associated costs of using and maintaining it.

The EPC will show the following information:

A breakdown of a property's energy performance.
Its environmental impact.
Recommendations for improvements.
Estimated energy use alongside potential savings.

EPCs are calculated using predetermined values called Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) or Reduced data SAP (RdSAP) for existing dwellings, which assumes specific characteristics about the property; for example, the calculation may take a home built before the 1930s to be solid wall construction, but cavity walls were becoming popular; the methodology may also not consider that internal retrofit insulation. For this reason, the methodology is merely a guide and may not indicate a property's energy efficiency.

In conclusion, EPCs are a good guide for landlords to improve the efficiency of their property before 2025. However, due to their assessment method, they may not reflect the actual efficiency of a property.