Landlords – changes ahead
- Parliament is pushing through increasingly stringent legislation on private landlords’ obligations to make privately rented homes ever more energy efficient and economical to heat.
- This affects landlords of all sorts from the pension-investment buy-to-let to the professional landlord with a few hundred or more properties in their portfolio.
- Many social housing tenants are facing a harsh employment landscape, benefit changes and a tougher time paying bills and prioritising rent payments.
- Everyone has an interest in making homes cheaper to heat.
New energy efficiency standards
From 1st April 2016 tenants living in homes falling into the F and G bands – those homes with the worst energy efficiency ratings – will be able to make requests for energy efficiency improvements, which the landlord cannot refuse if the request is reasonable.
From 1st April 2018 homes falling below band E, currently 10% of UK private rentals, will be banned from the rental market beyond running to the end of an existing rental contract.
Ecoflaps improve homes’ energy efficiency
Improving the energy efficiency of older homes will present a particular challenge and be less of a one-size-fits-all exercise, but there is plenty that can be done. Ecoflap letter box draught excluders work in most properties and represent just one element of an arsenal of retrofit measures that are not only highly cost-effective but extremely efficient at generating and conserving energy, cutting draughts and helping landlords meet their obligations. Furthermore, the Ecoflap is a robust letter box unit designed to withstand many thousands of deliveries.
With this in mind, we’ve created pages for social landlords and private landlords, detailing how an Ecoflap fitted quickly and simply in each property as part of routine maintenance can contribute to meeting these new targets. Ecoflaps are the dotted i and the crossed t of energy efficiency and insulation, as they prevent heat escaping through the letter box. Try one for yourself and feel the difference.