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General: The Landlord's Energy Dilemma

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    • CommentAuthorArtiglio
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2017 edited
     
    Ringi, very true, however in regard to energy performance and many of the new rules and regulations,

    The landlord is unable to generate the return they would like and sell

    This may well be at a reduced price in order to find a buyer

    Where the landlord chooses to improve his property to meet new regulation, they do so at their own cost.

    Landlord chooses to try and dodge his responsibilities, but will in future be more actively pursued by LA's as they look likely to be able to retain fine income.

    No matter which is the result its effectively a policy victory for one part of govt. or another.

    The real losers in the whole saga are those displaced from a shrinking private rental sector (PRS) on low income and without a huge increase in social housing supply , will have nowhere to go.

    Whilst the PRS is not perfect and there are some dreadful landlords that should be dealt with, as a whole its a sector that works well and provides much needed accmodation at a cost that social housing can never match. Though that will never be shown on a spreadsheet.
    •  
      CommentAuthordjh
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2017
     
    Posted By: ArtiglioPRS

    Performing Rights Society?
    • CommentAuthorcjard
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2017
     
    Privet Rentokill Secateurs
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2017
     
    “Private rental sector”, presumably. But,yeah, too many gratuitous TLAs.
    •  
      CommentAuthordjh
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2017
     
    Posted By: Ed Daviestoo many gratuitous TLAs

    It's a woldwide disease. We need more FLEAs.
    • CommentAuthorwookey
    • CommentTimeJan 27th 2017
     
    When I observed that renters I know hadn't seen an EPC till after they rented somewhere, I didn't mean to imply that it wasn't available, just they they didn't bother/have it drawn to their attention. They found it in some kind of handover pack. These people are mostly students, who you can understand are a bit clueless about house-running costs, although the postdoc types probably ought to know better :-) This was about 3 years ago when the rules were a bit fresher - I don't know if processes have improved at all in this regard - I should check.
  7.  
    Final (final, final) note on this one, on energy costs in the house IWI project described.

    Had a conversation with the T around energy bills today, while reviewing a new plaster skim (story is that the T nominated their own plasterer who didn't appear, then mine scheduled it in and did his back, so we went to a third) and talking about new carpets chosen by the T.

    Their annual energy bills show signs of being around £1000-£1100 once new uPVC doors have arrived and been fitted. Winter quarter was around £400 for a house run warmly with the project done part way through.

    If that comes through I will be tolerably happy. Still high in terms of the standards here on the forum, but worth investing for and low enough for T to notice the difference.

    Ferdinand
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeFeb 15th 2017
     
    One problem is once energy saving measures have been installed people tend to like to be warmer and so energy savings are eroded
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeFeb 15th 2017
     
    I think that may be true at the lower rough end, but say you used 10,000 kWh/year to keep your place at 16°C, you are not going to heat it up to say 26°C, just because you can.
    If you do, you only have yourself to blame.
    • CommentAuthorgravelld
    • CommentTimeFeb 15th 2017
     
    The trouble is 95% of our stock is at the "lower rough end" :wink:
    • CommentAuthorringi
    • CommentTimeFeb 15th 2017
     
    Often heating systems are not able to heat a property to what someone wants, so on cold days the property is below 18c even with the heating running 24/7. When the property is improved, the heating system then does its job.

    I expect that the first result of insulation is for tenants to heat the complete property rather then just one room.
  12.  
    In most student market bills are inclusive.
    • CommentAuthorringi
    • CommentTimeFeb 17th 2017
     
    Posted By: ferdinand2000In most student market bills are inclusive.


    They are not, if a group of students rents a complete house then the bills are nearly always excluded but if anyone rent a single room, then the bills are nearly always included.
  14.  
    Posted By: ringi
    Posted By: ferdinand2000In most student market bills are inclusive.


    They are not, if a group of students rents a complete house then the bills are nearly always excluded but if anyone rent a single room, then the bills are nearly always included.


    I think I am correct, but I did not express it very clearly.

    I intended to say that most students in rented accommodation have their bills included in the rent. The numbers (a little painful):

    There are approx 1 million students in rented accommodation in England, of which the division between institutional 'hall' settings (whether Uni or private provider) and the PRS is pretty much 50:50 (2):

    "In 2015-16 there are approximately 508,863 bed spaces in purpose-built accommodation." (1) Source Unipol

    For that 50% of the market, 94% of insitutions charge inclusive rents. Given that it will be the individual houses which are not inclusive, so the % of students with inclusive bills may be 98-99% in Uni accommodation.

    So we only need a tiny % of the PRS to make it an overall majority.

    According to the NUS, it is actually 40% of students in the PRS who pay at least one bill in their rent:

    "Two-fifths (40 per cent) of respondents in the private rented sector report having one or more bills included
    within their rent. Utility bills and internet are the most common inclusions, with water the most frequently
    reported (29 per cent), followed by electricity and internet (22 per cent each) and gas (21 per cent). Many respondents remarked that they had specifically sought houses where bills were included as this was considered easier." (2)

    Nearly all of one half, plus nearly half of the other half, is a significant majority.

    Ferdinand

    (1) https://nusdigital.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/document/documents/20637/e1416d1aae50226cf42ab902273d89c4/Unipol_NUS_AccommodationCostsSurvey2015.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJKEA56ZWKFU6MHNQ&Expires=1487532867&Signature=77am5qmDXlyV2pJa9pM62NHyKVM%3D

    (2) https://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/12238/Homes%20Fit%20for%20Study%20report.pdf (You have to dig a bit :-)
  15.  
    Posted By: ringi
    Posted By: ferdinand2000In most student market bills are inclusive.


    They are not, if a group of students rents a complete house then the bills are nearly always excluded but if anyone rent a single room, then the bills are nearly always included.


    Anecdotally, in my market (large East Midlands city) the trend is to bills being inclusive to rent. We have a couple of purpose built student houses, which were leased long term (15 years) to a university until they went for "ensuite and included services" (eg gyms) around 2013. The following year they were offering £700 cashback to get students in their gold-plated new halls with their sky-high rents :-) .

    Since then we have managed student bills via a single combined weekly payment with a balance-up at the year end. Last year our excellent Agent transferred their several hundred student properties from that to inclusive bills to follow the market - I am surmising because that is what the University does so that comparisons can be made more easily.

    Incidentally, our University has been gouging students since at least 2000. In a decade the rents charged on our leased houses increased by inflation plus 50%, while the increase in the return to us was inflation only, and the only extra service delivered was broadband. It does not cost 8k a year to provide broadband to a house!

    We recruit tenants as a group but with individual contracts, or admin becomes a nightmare if someone leaves.

    Ferdinand
  16.  
    In a former life SWMBO rented out her house all inclusive - until one winter Saturday afternoon she call to find the students watching TV in shorts and tee shirts, with the gas fire on full and the window open. When she asked why was the window open - came the reply "it is too hot otherwise!"
    The all inclusive rent was changed instantly to rent + bills.

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