is it possible to get Epc C for solid wall house?

[imiami]

The house is about 1900s, solid wall, no wall insulation, loft has some insulation.
considering for rental, as the Epc c will be the forced in a few years later,
is it possible to get Epc C which good wall insulation?
or it's time to sell the house?
Thanks

Sell and buy something already EPC A or B.

good idea, I did calculate: comparing the fix this old house, I need spend 50,000 to get a newer house, the epc which is D, but how to get epc C from D, after a few year?

I mean the newer house most of them are epc D

Have you investigated what it will take to make it a C?

We went from B to A by adding solar.

There is a cost cap of £3500 on improvements needed right now- that’s rising to £10000. So once you’ve done that amount of work in the pursuit of a “C” rating if you can’t get it to a C you can register as an exemption. That would be cheaper than selling surely? After fees etc.

That’s fair enough, but an EPC D or E will be worth less rent than a C or B.
With this years energy prices, renters will be much more interested in EPC ratings going forward.
Also, the government may just change their mind and enforce C ratings ( as they should ).

We'd have to do internal wall insulation to raise our 1900s terrace house to a C - we've already got thick lift insulation and replaced all the windows. Internal wall insulation would of course be incredibly expensive as you'd also need to redecorate everywhere, and it would make the rooms smaller. Sell up.

Good point @C4tastrophe! I guess it depends where you are too. The bulk of housing where I am are solid wall post war terraces. The majority won’t be able to get to a C, so there won’t be a great deal of choice of places that are C and up if you want to live there. Desirable area. So I don’t think it will impact rent a great deal. However if you have a good choice - people may well pick the higher rated places

Thanks, this my calculation: I need pay about 50,000 to improve this old house,
once done, it should be ready for rental, epc d or c (with exemption).
if I sell it, I need pay extra 80,000 get a newer house, but I saved 50,000 improvement fee, so 30,000 total to spend, but 5000 for stamp duty, and captial gain 7000, and newer house might need extra 10,000 decoration, hence I said I actually have to pay about 50,000 for newer house.

Thanks, did you do external wall insulation?

We are currently selling a similar age terraced house with a C rating. As far as I know the walls are solid but it is double glazed and has good loft insulation and a relatively new boiler.

What happens if a landlord owns say 4 terrace houses? They need spend £40k?

Thanks, that sounds very good.
but I hight doubt mine one can reach C without wall insulation, it is solid wall, it is very cold without heating in the winter, I have run heating all day long to keep it warm. when I am not home, no heating, outside temp is 8 degree, and inside is 10 degree.

We will, eventually, put external wall insulation on our house of a similar age. We also need to sort out the (largely single glazed) windows.

You would need an expert to say what would be needed to get you to a C

A terraced house is insulated either side by the other houses, so that’s easier.

If you sell it, I would expect your buyers to factor in price of raising the EPC for their own needs.

No, we won't be doing external wall insulation - it would look appalling on a mid-terrace house. If we're expected to spend up to 10k then that would be about four years' profit gone so it's just not worth it.

I wouldnt have thought that it will impact on rental income if the house or flat isnt up to a C. Renters are queuing up for properties and landlors currently have the pick of a long list, renters cant be fussy.

This is why they are changing the law. Every landlord needs to spend 10k upgrading each property so the minimum standard across the board increases.

And the 10k is feasible for landlords in London who charge a couple of k a month for a property: I live in the midlands and looking in estate agents' windows the average rent is around £600-700, very few are C. How many landlords are going to use several years' profit rather than just selling up?

I was replying in reference to the posts above which said that if the money is spent but its not up to a C still, they get an exemption and then someone else said that this might mean they charge less. My point was, that if they're not a C, I doubt it will affect their rental income.

There'll be certain houses which are easier to change. Our house which we own isnt at a C standard and short of cavity wall insulation (which I wont allow) or internal insulation which will make rooms smaller, theres not a lot else we can do. We were told by someone we had to look at our loft that we cant increase the loft insulation due to the size of the joists (not sure what they meant actually), we have an up to date boiler and new double glazing.

Is the a house a mid terrace, semi- or detached? Mid terrace are easier to get to a C as long as they don't have an alley to the jade.

Alley to the side.

My detached house has a relatively new boiler, roof insulation, double glazing and the extension is insulated. However because the original part of the house has solid walls, out EPC is only a D and the only way to get it higher is to either insulate externally or internally. The quotes for external insulation have come in at £14,000.
Personally I find the EPC’s rather fudged. I’ve had two and although they both said house was a D, they both focused on different things and suggested completely different things to improve the house’s efficiency.

Solar panels seems like the thing which will make the biggest difference- definitely not cheap though. EPC's are so questionable - if you got 3 assessors round to the same property they would come up with different numbers. So many of them say 'assumed' for things like loft insulation and cavity wall insulation. The national average EPC is a D so why do private rentals need to be above that (in the near future). Social housing doesn't have the same requirements, listed buildings don't have the same requirements. I predict a whole load of 2 year tenancies being signed in Dec 2024 - the rules don't apply to existing tenancies. It's not like there's an abundance of trades people available to carry out these upgrades!