Ponty
pfm Member
Good question. This is what happens when we sign up to ‘net zero’ without having the ability to deliver upon it. It’s going to cause absolute mayhem.
Housing market
- Thread starter matt j
- Start date
Good question. This is what happens when we sign up to ‘net zero’ without having the ability to deliver upon it. It’s going to cause absolute mayhem.
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
It is part of this which is still at discussion stage.
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3036
The way this chaotic govt is going I doubt it will be introduced at all before the election.
mandryka
pfm Member
In England it is not yet law. The proposal is to require each new tenancy to be EPC C from 2025 (from memory -- maybe 2024) and every tenancy to be EPC C by 2028. It is not clear how this will be achieved in older properties. The definitions of the EPC levels are being "clarified" There may well be grants made available.
mandryka
pfm Member
There's an idea I've seen mooted that grants will limit expenditure to 10K per property. But there's no point in speculating I think. I have an EPC due for renewal in 2023 and I intend to go round with the surveyor and discuss the implications. And I have a house with EPC D, with double glazing and roof insulation and a new boiler. I'm not sure what can push it into C -- it may be very small things like temperature controlled radiator valves or an extra couple of centimetres of roof insulation. My feeling is that the definitions of the levels will be adjusted (in fact, I've never seen how the levels are actually defined!)
clivem2
pfm Member
The approved contractors generally do a cowboy job, as low a cost to themselves as possible, you won't be wanting them back for more work (probably from out of area anyway) so it's all about ticking a box and submitting a bill.
mandryka
pfm Member
Well for me it's a business so as long as the boxes are ticked and I can see a way to recover my costs, I'm cool about that.
clivem2
pfm Member
I can imagine the fun...the staircase could be too narrow for building regs, you need to remove and refit skirtings, maybe dado, could even need remake 100-year-old cornice, extend electrics, modify plumbing and refit radiators.
hifinutt
hifinutt
got a stone built place that i might just get away with a d [ epc due imminently] . just about to replace the lights with LED to see if i can squeeze a d . its got massive insulation but could not improve on it due to construction. a friend is interested in buying for a BTL but already sent him this possible epc C thing and no doubt will put him off i think
hifinutt
hifinutt
indeed ....
hifinutt
hifinutt
cavity wall insulation is another of their suggestions ... but i read this stuff and get put off . even known of house sales that fall through because of it
Getting Britain's homes insulated is the cornerstone of the Government's green energy policy and an obsession for road-blocking eco-protesters.
But the scale of damp-related problems linked to cavity wall insulation is so serious that an MP is calling for an independent inquiry to improve protection for householders.
One expert has estimated that up to two million homes may have problems as a result of insulation being pumped into the cavity between outside and inside walls.
In some extreme cases, the resulting problems of damp and mould inside the house have rendered properties worthless and unsellable.
Over the past 35 years, about eight million homes in the UK have been retrofitted with wall insulation to improve energy efficiency.
More than six million of these were done under the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA) scheme, providing a 25-year guarantee for the work.
Although properly installing suitable wall insulation in an appropriate property does reduce heat loss, thousands have blamed insulating wall cavities for triggering mould and damp inside.
More than 34,000 people have tried to claim for corrective work under the CIGA scheme, with only a small percentage accepted as 'justified'.
Rejected claims are usually blamed on the lifestyle of residents or poor property maintenance, rather than on the negligence of installers.
Chris Elmore, Labour MP for Ogmore in South Wales, says action needs to be taken to help householders.
As a heating engineer with renovation experience, Claire Hillyar thought she could handle any problems with her new three-bedroom terrace.
She renovated her £150,000 home in Portsmouth from top to bottom.
The previous owner had taken advantage of green energy grants to have cavity wall insulation installed in 2009.
Claire Hillyar discovered a serious damp issue in her end-of-terrace home linked to cavity wall insulation the property's former owner had installed
It was only after Claire suffered sinus problems in 2018 that she discovered there was a serious damp issue linked to the insulation work.
Damp patches on the living room wall were linked to her 'systemic fungal infection'.
The property was covered by the CIGA guarantee and an inspector accepted that there was damp caused by the cavity wall insulation, which had to be removed.
'I was told it shouldn't have been done on this property,' Claire says. The front, gable end and top floor of the back of her home were all affected.
Sub-contractors removed the insulation — but Claire says that by 'blasting' it out with high-pressure air, they caused more damage to the building and it has cost her £4,500 to rebuild the walls.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...ulation-ruining-homes-causing-damp-mould.html
Getting Britain's homes insulated is the cornerstone of the Government's green energy policy and an obsession for road-blocking eco-protesters.
But the scale of damp-related problems linked to cavity wall insulation is so serious that an MP is calling for an independent inquiry to improve protection for householders.
One expert has estimated that up to two million homes may have problems as a result of insulation being pumped into the cavity between outside and inside walls.
In some extreme cases, the resulting problems of damp and mould inside the house have rendered properties worthless and unsellable.
Over the past 35 years, about eight million homes in the UK have been retrofitted with wall insulation to improve energy efficiency.
More than six million of these were done under the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA) scheme, providing a 25-year guarantee for the work.
Although properly installing suitable wall insulation in an appropriate property does reduce heat loss, thousands have blamed insulating wall cavities for triggering mould and damp inside.
More than 34,000 people have tried to claim for corrective work under the CIGA scheme, with only a small percentage accepted as 'justified'.
Rejected claims are usually blamed on the lifestyle of residents or poor property maintenance, rather than on the negligence of installers.
Chris Elmore, Labour MP for Ogmore in South Wales, says action needs to be taken to help householders.
As a heating engineer with renovation experience, Claire Hillyar thought she could handle any problems with her new three-bedroom terrace.
She renovated her £150,000 home in Portsmouth from top to bottom.
The previous owner had taken advantage of green energy grants to have cavity wall insulation installed in 2009.
Claire Hillyar discovered a serious damp issue in her end-of-terrace home linked to cavity wall insulation the property's former owner had installed
It was only after Claire suffered sinus problems in 2018 that she discovered there was a serious damp issue linked to the insulation work.
Damp patches on the living room wall were linked to her 'systemic fungal infection'.
The property was covered by the CIGA guarantee and an inspector accepted that there was damp caused by the cavity wall insulation, which had to be removed.
'I was told it shouldn't have been done on this property,' Claire says. The front, gable end and top floor of the back of her home were all affected.
Sub-contractors removed the insulation — but Claire says that by 'blasting' it out with high-pressure air, they caused more damage to the building and it has cost her £4,500 to rebuild the walls.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...ulation-ruining-homes-causing-damp-mould.html
clivem2
pfm Member
Yep…our EPC suggested cavity wall insulation. We are have a tall 1904 semi with solid walls front and rear and a north facing gable end with a cavity…there’s a little damp in the cellar already, I dread to think what filling in the cavity would do. If we insulate from the inside there are all the other issues with party wall as per your post above. Given quantity of the housing stock being Victorian/Edwardian vintage in some areas, these sorts of issues will make insulating such buildings very costly and difficult. I believe this issue is severely underestimated.
clivem2
pfm Member
The business model for buying (or is it renting?) on interest only depends on low interest rates. A few years of higher rates would reshape the market. We got used to very low interest rates over the 10 or 15 years. We may see a return to what were more normal rates of about 6%..if so the BTL multi-buy interest-only market will be dead. Just well-off investors will remain.
mandryka
pfm Member
Assume EPC C are required in 2028, and evictions are hard or impossible, and that a landlord with a tenant in place decides that it’s not worth the cost of doing the EPC upgrade - maybe he can’t afford to do it. Maybe he can’t use section 21 because of some paperwork problem anyway - like no gas safety at the start of the tenancy. He can’t let, and he can’t evict!
My advice to anyone in the industry is to keep a very very close eye on the legislation developments and to have a good amount of cash available, and to be ready to get out of the game. You don’t want to find yourself in a test case! And you don’t want to be trapped in a business which isn’t profitable.
My advice to anyone in the industry is to keep a very very close eye on the legislation developments and to have a good amount of cash available, and to be ready to get out of the game. You don’t want to find yourself in a test case! And you don’t want to be trapped in a business which isn’t profitable.
Ponty
pfm Member
Indeed. Too many speculators effectively renting from the bank on the basis that ‘prices only go up’. Unless they’ve got plenty of cash to fund the shortfalls between income and increased interest payments (unlikely for many), they’re toast. That’s good news for landlords in it for the long haul. There could be plenty of forced sales next year. First time buyers will struggle because banks will pull the shutters down. That leaves landlords who aren’t over leveraged and those with good old fashioned cash to pick through the wreckage.