MEES Part 1

Hi, it’s Phil from Sunshine. Just wanted to talk to you and make sure that you fully understand the meaning of MEES, minimum energy efficiency standards. It came out of the energy efficiency private rental property England and Wales regulations ’15. Quite a mouthful. So it’s been around for some time. It comes into effect on the 1st of April this year, so the end of this week.

It should not be confused with the regulations that came into play on April ’16, where the tenant was entitled to ask you as the landlord for energy efficient repairs to be undertaken at no cost to the landlord, if you as a landlord had no reasonable reason to refuse consent. They are separate.

So the reason it’s come in is it’s intended to firstly reduce carbon emissions. More importantly from a renting point of view, it’s in there to enable the tenants who need the most help to have lower bills. So the benefits will be you will have homes that are more efficient, especially for the vulnerable and people who are on low pay. The environment in which they live will be a better standard, it’ll be higher, therefore there’ll be less risk of illness, which again appeals to the government when they’re introducing this.

And first and foremost there’ll be lower energy bills, always important when you’re talking to people on housing benefit, or on lower pay. And just to give an example, very rough figures, but a property that’s on a G rating will come in annually at £2,800 for the bills, the same property on an E rating will come in at £1,700. So there’s a saving there of £1,100 straight off, so long as the energy uses remains similar for both.

So, it means that the tenants will have better energy efficiency. It will help the tenants to actually manage their energy costs much better, they’ll be able to budget better. We won’t have these high and lows, peaks and troughs. It will improve the condition of the property, because if you haven’t got hold and cold periods fluctuating, then from the tenant’s point of view, and from the landlord’s, the property will be better maintained, be an ambient temperature throughout.

In condition with that, it will actually help reduce the maintenance. There’ll be less problems, particularly with the damp and condensation. It will smooth the energy seasonal peaks in demand, particularly winter, and that will give our energy security, which the government is very keen on, a much better footing to work from.

And lastly, in theory is that it will reduce greenhouse emissions, CO2 to you an I. Now, those are the benefits to the tenant, to the landlord there’s also benefits if you think about it. If the property’s being improved, particularly from a heating point of view, and bills, then the tenant is more satisfied, the tenant will want to sty. That should be fairly obvious I hope that the two have a knock on effect.

It should also reduce void periods. If we go back to the example of GNE, if you have the same accommodation but you’re saying £1,100 by going to the property that’s had the work done, it’s going to make it a lot more attractive to let.

It should reduce long term maintenance, as we’ve discussed, obviously there’s always going to be maintenance issues but some of the ones that are more obviously associated with heat and cold should be reduced by lower energy bills and better control of the energy usage.

It should also make the property more attractive, that’s key again, it comes back to voids. Easier to let. That’s everything for part one, we’ll deal with the methodology and the reasons for …

That’s everything for part one, we’ll deal with the methodology of EPC’s, energy performance certificates, and exemptions, in part two and part three.