NOVA NEWS EDITORIAL 02 FEBRUARY 2021.

EPC - IT’S THE LAW

The majority of landlords and sellers will be aware that it is a legal requirement to have a valid Energy Performance Certificate in place to market a property for sale or to let. A valid EPC must be available upon request for any such property. Furthermore a rental property must conform to the minimum energy standards as set out in the Private Rented Property Regulations for England and Wales that ANY private rented property should have a minimum EPC rating of ‘E’

The majority of sellers and landlords will have this in place as their agents will generally check that the necessary documentation is in place. However, this validity can slip through the net if the EPC expires during the sales process or a tenant’s occupancy of a property. This information is easy enough to check just follow the link shown.
https://find-energy-certificate.digital.communities.gov.uk

If you fail to comply with the regulations you could be liable to a hefty fine so it may be worth checking, it only takes a couple of minutes. If you require an updated, valid, certificate I will be happy to give you a quote.

The housing market for selling has been frantic and all property professionals will have been happy to have a time to catch their breath over the Christmas and New Year break, now a distant memory. Hopefully the sales market will continue to remain buoyant in the New Year, we may now know if an extension to the Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday has been announced. Many sellers will eagerly await this as the sale to completion process has been markedly slowed over the past weeks with the huge increase in sales agreed. All parties involved will be looking for some clarity as 31st March approaches.

The Spring is almost with us now and hopefully the vaccine roll out is gathering pace, this should give us all a lift and traditionally the property market is very active at this time. Let us hope that the pre Christmas impetus in sales is maintained because the Housing market drives the economy in a multitude of ways. This is much to do with why agents have been allowed to remain open, behind closed doors, even in Tier 4 lockdown areas.