Information for green landlords

Landlords – Why go green?

If you’re a landlord, the idea of making changes to your property for the sake of the environment may feel like too much of an effort. But in fact, many of the measures available to landlords provide an ideal opportunity to get more out of your property, as well as a chance to help save the environment.

Making your property ‘greener’ can deliver the following benefits:

• The opportunity to increase the sale price. Some green improvements to your property can raise the capital value.
• The opportunity to increase the rent price. Green improvements will mean your property will be easier to heat and be kinder to the environment – making it doubly more appealing to potential tenants.
• The opportunity to save your tenants money on their bills. For some, particularly the elderly, this is an opportunity to tackle the serious issue of Fuel Poverty. Referring to people who need to spend more than 10% of their income just to adequately heat their homes, high levels of Fuel Poverty can lead directly to winter deaths, particularly among pensioners.
• And of course, the opportunity to help save the planet.

Landlords – Green policies and regulatory incentives

There are now a number of incentives that have been put in place to help you be greener – but there are also many policy requirements that are demanded of all landlords.

These include:

Landlords Energy Saving Allowance (LESA) – This is a tax incentive that invites all landlords that let residential property to install insulation in their rented property and claim £1500 back on their tax bill. This allowance applies to each property rather than to each building, so if you own several flats in a block, you can claim for upgrades to each flat rather than just once for work on the block. Find out more about the allowance at the HMRC website.

Grants – If a landlord has tenants that are on benefits they may be able to have green improvements, such as a new boiler or insulation installation, made on the property completely free through the government’s Warmfront programme. There are also EEC grants available to landlords, particularly those with tenants on benefits.

Local Authority Regulation – If a landlord has a property that hasn’t been modernised for a number of years, or vulnerable tenants, the local authority might classify the property as a hazard due to risk of excess cold. If this happens, the landlord will be required to make energy improvements at their own expense. Access to grants to pay for the improvements may be reduced.

Energy Performance Certificate – From October 2008 in England and Wales this certificate will need to be shown by landlords when they let a property. It shows how much the property will cost to heat and its relative impact on the environment. Obviously, the greener and cheaper to heat that your property is, the more desirable/valuable it becomes.