Do not rise to the jealousy of a troll bait folks.
Yes, this has been the experience in New Zealand too, where landlords have ended up having to be very choosy. At least the weather is better in Godzone if you have to sleep in your car 
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I donāt think itās reasonable to expect Victorian terraces to be higher than a good D. They just arenāt built to be.
As long as there is the right layer of loft insulation (and the roof is sound) double glazing, a reasonable boiler and thermostat, decent number or radiators I feel like thatās enough.
Led lightbulbs are about Ā£1 each if you get them in the right places at the right time, but itās debatable whether thatās landlord or tenants issue as itās negligible.
I know bills have gone up, but really you are right about the wall insulation, thatās been a disaster in too many places.
Solar panels are coming down in price, but Iāve no idea about the infrastructure. We seem to have got tied up with air source heat pumps which arent suitable for old terraces because they donāt get warm enough. It might be better for grants to be available for solar as they would have a direct saving for the tenant at least for some of the year and add some house value because of reduced bills as we go to e-cars.
I have victorian properties that achieve good c easy. Insulate all the floors with 100mm kingspan. Line internal walls with 80mm kingspan . Plasterboard and skim . Led s and combi boilers. > Helps that I sell a certain building product and am a joiner
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Thatās because Britain is fixated on misusing heat pumps to heat water filled radiators.
Much more efficient and a heck of a lot cheaper to use floor mounted internal units like those from Daikin that blow out hot air. These heat badly insulated older rooms in less than 4 minutes (and cool them down in the increasingly hotter summers that Britain will be gettingā¦)
I disagree. All of mine , apart from a gable end , are a high C.
They are double glazed, composite doors, condenser boilers, loft insulation and in the last few years we have started retrofitting floors. Iāve also taken out chimneys ( cold ventilated void spaces donāt help keep a house warm ) otherwise you can heat it till the cows come home and it wonāt stay warm. The latter two are nearly invisible on an EPC.
Retrofitting floors increases the temperature by six degrees. The difference is palpable. The cost to heat a home with retrofitted insulated floors is currently between Ā£50 and cĀ£100 pcm gas ( that is dependant on external temperature and includes the gas hob). Itās not given gravitas on an EPC. Why ? because itās not pragmatic . The tenant would need to vacate and you need a good amount of drying time otherwise the moisture, from concrete drying, will cause mould . Houses built are rafters are cold because of the ground. The wall is ventilated to allow cold air (and mice ) into the ground.
Dealing with this is costly but a serious game changer. I would rather do the ground rather than the walls any time of the day.
I now require solar panels to get them to B rated. Which is the highest they can go.
With render you can see rising damp if the DPC fails. You wonāt see that when you insulate the walls . Youāll just get the smell or mould. Iāve noticed we get less or no mould in sand and cement render . However anything with gypsum eg bonding or board is more likely to grow mould. Iāve ripped off plasterboard where I have found it and gone back to sand and cement. Iāve assumed the alkaline property of the concrete prohibits mould growth. One didnāt see mould in the old lime plaster .
Thats something Iām really pleased to be wrong about!
Is the flooring expensive? It sounds like youāve really gone the extra mile to make tenants comfortable. I suppose itās difficult if the house needs to be empty.
I wonder if instead of abandoning s21s it would achieve a better result if when one was issued there was an expectation of work being carried out to that effect (making homes a C on the register)
It would be a financial disincentive to evict in lesser homes (I think the average is D/E.) without removing the option completely. It might eventually result in better housing stock and reward landlords who have put that level of thought and investment in (or those with newer properties)
It would also incentivise anyone taking out buy to let to consider the EPC more carefully. Perhaps?
Not when you put in a solid DPC first ,when you buy the property . The old fashioned way whizzer / hand saw cut out a 3 foot section ,insert dpc slate and mortar it up . No damp. no probs
Correct about lime mortar .I lived in an old mill in Wales .all lime mortar . no DPC built o huge bocks of slate . No damp. I have built walls using a slate dpc
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Yes, itās expensive Ā£3k per room for 150mm kingspan
To meet regulations itās 20ā dig out , hardcore , Visqueen, kingspan Visqueen 100mm c30 concrete
The cost is in the dig and removal of excavation as access limits the use of a grab so we needed skips which ramps up the cost.
You also need buildings to dig it off so the EpC assessor has evidence itās actually been done.
I have never heard of this. I have only ever injected.
When you cut out 3 foot ( I assume horizontally) does that cause any problems?
Do you have party wall issues or do you do this on external walls only ?
Iām guessing you do this yourself and donāt employ someone to do this.
Yes did it myself on external and internal walls you do 3ft here and 3 ft in a different wall. Next day do another section or 2 or3 or 4 overlapping each dpc by 150mm . This is old school. Never a failure. Now you can use a dpc silicone . This too is very good stuff.
the floors I did were suspended timber, so easy to do
Thatās interesting, do you think that would solve the retrofit problems in the older properties, or is it prohibitively expensive? I wonder why itās not being widely publicised.
There was a post on here, or another board recently about being reluctant to trust a landlord reference. The person made a comment about either the LL wanting rid of a tenant saying something positive regardless of the situation.
Iāve also seen tenantās comment that they have concerns about a prospective landlord contacting a current one at an earlier stage than advisable and jeopardising their current tenancy (and subsequently not choosing them).
Are their common issues with landlord referencing? Presumably this is more difficult out of the local area/community?
I wondered whether a shared inspection report at each inspection would assist. Like a quick mini inventory. Might just be, rent paid in full and on time for period, notes of any damage or cosmetic wear, confirmation tenant has kept to agreement, or outcomes of anything discussed. I assume this is done anyway, but not necessarily provided to the tenant. Tenants wouldnāt have to show it to anyone, but if it helped them they might choose to.
I wondered if being able to hand over documentary evidence of a positive tenancy before referencing might mean it can be delayed until itās safe for the tenant. Might it also reinforce the final reference and give it validity?
Would consistent documentation provide any additional reassurance?
Thank you
I will see if I can find a video on you tube and consider it on my next project
Silicone sometimes needs redoing if the walls were very damp to start with
How do you deal with houses on a hill?
Do you do it at two different levels, as you would fit silicone, and tank in between ?
A lot of references are false . Iāve received enough of them.
A tenant can pay rent and that can be validated with bank statements and visiting someoneās home you can see how they live .
You can validate rent and the state of the property. You cannot determine the demeanour of a tenant . No one is going to tell you about the prospective tenants asbo or abusive behaviour ( cluster b issues) or s21 if they want them to leave. References are given to facilitate the landlord they are leaving from.
I donāt give false references. I just donāt give them for bad tenants.
I once called a referee after I served a s21 to a tenant they recommended. Even though they were no longer the tenants landlord they changed their reference and actually told me to speak to the current landlord ( myself) as I was having problems .
I have been contacted by tenants nearly a decade after they left for a reference which is always suspicious.
Some tenants want written references which I refuse to provide. I want to contact the landlord myself.
Landlords , unfortunately , are not going to be transparent when they are trying to get rid of a difficult tenant and tenants can easily falsify references if they want to
House on a hill. With DPC Silicone You can drill and fill horizontally, at an angle as up a slope, or vertically. So level with the slab of concrete floor, or at the bottom of a timber joist floor. Best drilled from two sides ,tho can be done from one side. ( this is of course not the silicone that you put around a bath!). When I was younger I did many solid dpc s but as I got older did the silicone injection. not as much time spent on my knees.
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