Will I Need an Energy Performance Certificate for my Buy to Let Property

Landlords will need to provide copies of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) to their tenants from Sept 2008.
I understand that the EPC will not have a limited life as they will remain relevant unless any works are carried out to the property that may affect its energy efficiency in which case a new EPC would need to be obtained to reflect this.
If you want ofind out more, ask me!
I’m David Lawrenson from property investment consultancy Letting Focus. I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting – How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling buy to let book and which has also been Amazon.co.uk’s top selling property title for the last 6 months.
I’m a speaker, I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog and am a media commentator on the residential property market.
You can read more of my property investment insights and details of my networking, advice, telephone consultancy and property investment seminar programme on my website http://www.lettingfocus.com/ My blog is at http://www.lettingfocus.com/blog/blog.html
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we are unbiased and independent, because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2007

What are the Rules on Houses in Multiple Occupation in Relation to 2- storey Houses?

Suppose a landlord has a 2 storey, 3-bedroomed house, not covered by mandatory licensing (as it’s less than 3 storeys) and assume also that the local authority has not extended licensing locally. In this scenario is there anything to stop a landlord putting in six or more tenants in such a property and staying outside the HMO regulations? If so, what regulations would then apply to prevent this?
This is a tough question which even I did not know the answer too and I’m grateful to the guys at the Residential Landlords Association at http://www.rla.org.uk/ for supplying the answer.
The RLA experts say that the property would, of course, be an HMO (assuming the tenants are not members of the same family). However it would not be licensable as it is only three storeys.
But a landlord trying to stuff it full of tenants would be stopped by other rules. The legislation applying would be: the HMO Management Regulations, the Housing Health & Safety Rating system coupled with Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004 which provide local authorities with the powers to deal with any hazards at the property, the Housing Act 1985 Part X which deals with minimum room sizes and the Housing Act 2004 which deals with the prevention of overcrowding in HMOs.
So there you have it!
If you want to find out more, ask us.
We are the property experts and buy to let investment consultancy Letting Focus and I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting – How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling buy to let book and which has also been Amazon.co.uk’s top selling property title for the last 6 months.
I’m a speaker, I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write this property investment blog and am a media commentator on the residential property market.
You can read more of my property investment expert opinions and details of my networking, advice, telephone consultancy and property investment seminar programme on my website http://www.lettingfocus.com/ My blog is at http://www.lettingfocus.com/blog/blog.html
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we are unbiased and independent, because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.
If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad.