Have you heard of MEES?

If you are letting a property in England or Wales you should be aware of The Domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) Regulations which came into effect in April 2018.

If this is news to you, the first thing you should do is to check that all of your properties now comply and that you are ready for the next milestone (1st April 2020)  to avoid a whooping fine of up to £5000 per property.

Since April 2018, Landlords have not been permitted to let private rental properties on new tenancies (to new and existing tenants) unless the property has a minimum level of energy efficiency of E (as confirmed by the Energy Performance Certificate for the property) or that property is subject to one of the following exemptions:-

• High cost exemption
• ‘7 year payback’ exemption
• ‘All improvements made’ exemption
• ‘Wall insulation’ exemption
• ‘Consent’ exemption
• ‘Devaluation’ exemption
• ‘New Landlord’ exemption

So, you’ve checked you comply with the April 2018 standard – that’s great. 

However, from April 2020,  it will be an offence to let any property with a rating of an F or G  regardless of when a tenancy was signed.  So, even if a tenant has been in situ since before 2018 and is on a periodic tenancy, the property must be rated at E as a minimum (unless it is exempt of course).

Ignore this at your peril as the local authority can impose Compliance Notices and penalties up to £5000 per property in breach and that’s a lot of lost rent.

Many may see this as just another thing that the government are throwing at the private rented sector but if you consider their purpose, EPCs and MEES are not a bad thing at all.  

The EPC’s tell us how energy efficient a property is and also what can be done to make it even more energy efficient. The MEES regulations ensure that landlord’s keep their properties as energy efficient as possible.

What next? 

Well, it’s quite likely that there will be more pressure on government to ensure that properties are kept as energy efficient as possible so it is not inconceivable that the minimum rating could well be reduced over the coming years.

Indeed Scotland are introducing their minimum standards in 2020 and are looking for all private rented properties to be a minimum of a C rating by 2030. 

I hope that you found this interesting.  If you have anything lettings related that you’d like to discuss, please give me a call on 01945 461116 or email magda@valiantproperties.co.uk