Tenants to benefit from energy efficiency rules

29 2008
The introduction of the government-led Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) will help British tenants to cut back on their fuel bills, experts have stated.

Under the recently-announced legislation, from the start of October, all home sellers will be required to provide an EPC for a property, giving it an energy efficiency rating of between A and G.

This, in turn, will enable tenants to see how energy efficient a property is before moving in, while landlords are also likely to take step such as installing insulation so as to bring energy bills down.

"My gut feeling is that tenants, who will see an immediate saving on their gas bills, are going to pay quite a lot of attention to these energy ratings," Jon McGowan, an energy doctor from the Energy Saving Trust, explained.

Also welcoming the initiative, Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, added: "People who are renting are within their rights to ask the landlord for a copy of the energy certificate to see what the running costs are and having those in front of you will enable you to compare the running costs of homes."

However, research recently carried out by the Energy Saving Trust found that 56 per cent of people feel estate agents still don't know enough about the new certificates.
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