Buying a house with a bad EPC rating?

[wildlifeobserver1]

I’m looking to buy my first property and came across a 3 bed semi in a very desirable area. The house is just off a busy roundabout but also has an EPC rating of F. I’m going for a 2nd viewing to determine if the noise from the road would be too much, but would the poor EPC rating put you off, as it could mean high energy bills? I’m only planning to be in the house for a few years.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'm not convinced that the ratings are that much use. You can climb a few notches by doing fairly trivial things like changing the lightbulbs, changing the valves on the radiators, and spending half an hour in the loft unrolling a couple of rolls of insulation.

Find out why it is F-rated.
Find out how much it would cost to improve the rating. £XX
Find out the increase in value of the house after the improvement. £ZZ
If £ZZ is higher than £XX, it might be worth a punt.

If you're not planning to do anything to increase the energy rating I think it would be harder to sell in future. An F rating is very low, it's lower than you can legally rent out. It will need a lot more work than PP have said - it's not just light bulbs at that level! Without improving the insulation it could be very hard to heat to a comfortable temperature at all. It would probably also mean the windows don't dampen any noise from the road as they are unlikely to be double glazed if the rating is an F. Energy efficiency can be improved and all those improvements add value to a house so if it is the right house apart from the energy rating then maybe just work out how much you have to spend to do it up a bit.

It wouldn't put me off, our last home had a brilliant rating (new build) and yes heating bills were low, but in summer we needed fans etc running and those next door had air con installed as it was so hot. Our bedroom regularly read 30 degrees on the top floor which was sometimes worrying with a young baby.

We live in an older house now with a fairly low rating, however we have made it cosy with a few small improvements - loft insulation, re-sealing window surrounds (may replace too in time) etc. You can also put in energy bulbs and look at options like solar etc. In the summer we don't need to do anything but open the doors and windows. I don't regret it and actually, we seem to be using less heating in the winter over time so I think we are sort of training ourselves to need it less, which could be a good thing.

Then again if you only want to stay a few years maybe it is better to go for an easier option?

Here's a guide to EPC. Apparently (it's a long time since I bought a house!) it actually tells you what is needed. Get the certificate.

You have to wonder why the existing owner hasn't upgraded already. Lazy? Deceased? More cost than it's worth?

Thanks everyone, that’s really helpful to consider all of the above.
The property looks like someone had died then it was bought to be renovated, and their standard of renovations wasn’t the best, which also explains why the EPC hadn’t been addressed!

It would put me off unless I could see that it could be easily rectified. I think the certificates give you an idea of how to make it better.

I think soon you can't rent out a property with a rating less than D and there has been quite a few articles in the press lately about how a low rating could affect mortgages in the future. I think the Government has a target of most properties being a C.

However if you know that a new boiler, energy efficient lightblubs etc would do the trick and you're happy to do that at some point then it's fine! I was put off a very old house with a rating of E because it wasn't really clear how it could be improved to future proof the house.

Good luck and hope the second viewing goes well.

I bought a house with an F (for Fail I think) Been here 8 years Put up internal solid wall insulation (replacing lathe and plaster), replaced boiler, changed hot water from oil sucking Aga to boiler, changed open fire to a wood stove (don't know if this made a difference to EPC but it warmed the room). Insulated loft. I'm a low D now thinking of solar panels to make it a C at some point.

I think if you need to re-renovate then you can easily put some energy saving measures in.

EPC ratings are a very rough and ready measure of a property's thermal efficiency. A lot of common sense things you can do to insulate the house aren't covered by EPCs, eg. thick thermal-lined curtains, wool carpets, and quality carpet underlay; yet trivial improvements, eg. energy saving bulbs in rooms you hardly use will improve the rating. Think also of the orientation of the property; if its south-facing, it will get a lot of 'free' heat and light - but it's another thing not covered by EPCs.

EPC ratings need to be completely reconsidered, they are a nonsense - suggesting a wind turbine to improve rating in an area sheltered from the wind .

On top of this recent measures being put forward in the name of climate change are totally unsuitable for older houses without either turning them in to a mess of damp or spending unrealistic amounts of money.

Theteapotsbrokenspout Tue 25-Jan-22 14:26:50
EPC ratings need to be completely reconsidered, they are a nonsense.

Yes, a nonsense.
Example: my loft is drowning in insulation (I know, I put it there !). Then, to insulate my roof space even more, I boarded the loft. But, when I had the EPC inspection, the house was listed as having 'no loft insulation', because said the inspector 'if I can't see it, I can't tick the box to say it is there' - even though it could clearly be seen sticking up around the edges of the loft !

So, the house was listed as having no loft insulation, so grade D, when if I hadn't improved insulation by boarding the loft, it would be a C. Nonsense on stilts !

Upon a 2nd viewing I noticed other issues with the property (eg a big leak!) so decided not to go ahead with it after all.

Appreciate all the input around EPC ratings and will keep it in mind as I continue on my house hunt!

Our house was F rated when we bought it. It does cost a fortune to heat and the biggest improvement to the temperature came when we installed double glazing (it was previously single glazed). Less expensive things we did that definitely helped were insulating the attic, putting s new front door in (the previous front door had gaps in the door itself as well as between the door and doorframe) and putting thermal lined curtains over the front door.

Loft Insulation and double glazing are the main things to help EPC.
You can easily do the loft yourself and often there are grants available.

No it wouldn't put me off. In the grand scheme of costs of buying & loving in a house for a few years, the heating costs between an F and a C property are basically negligible. And an F rating will likely mean lots of easy wins to improve it- DIY loft insulation rolls, LED bulbs etc.

@Whattochoosenow

Loft Insulation and double glazing are the main things to help EPC. You can easily do the loft yourself and often there are grants available.

The EPC assessor told me that the double glazing makes surprisingly little difference to the rating. Biggest difference are insulation, and heating/hot water .

It all depends why.

If a single skin building, it is hard to fix.

If low levels of insulation in the loft, it is easy to fix.

The F rating itself would not put me off.