One of my vacating tenants signed a new AST yesterday on a listed building with a G EPC rating.
The new letting agent won’t give her any information about whether or not the property has been officially classed as exempt so my tenant is worried and wants to back out of the tenancy.
Is there a register to show buildings as exempt? And if it isn’t officially exempt, can she back out despite having signed yesterday?
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Any member of the public can search the exemptions register, which is available here.
Although it’s unlawful to let a property under an E rating or without an exemption, the tenancy isn’t negated; instead, it’s dealt with by enforcement and a fine.
Suppose the EPC wasn’t provided during the marketing phase and, at the latest, at any viewing. In that case, there might be a slight chance of withdrawing because if the tenant didn’t realise it was a G rating before signing but only found out afterwards, that could be arguable it wasn’t correctly advertised.
If the tenant was given the EPC and could see it was a G before signing, even if it’s not registered as exempt, we don’t know how they’re financially affected.
That said, if it’s not registered exempt, the landlord should be reported because it’s not fair to other landlords who make improvements. Before exemption, a minimum of £3,500 must be spent to improve the rating. This is very different on a listed building because they may not be allowed even to pay that amount, but there will likely be some things that can be done, such as loft insulation (if applicable) and LED lighting.