Great Opportunities Presented by Energy Performance Certificates
In the UK before any commercial property is rented out or sold, the owners of these properties have to provide the potential buyers or tenants with an energy efficiency report on the building. The same requirement is also stipulated on the any other domestic property. This is the energy performance certificates that are often given out to the buyers and tenants to gauge the energy efficiency of the building before making a purchase.
This regulation was first implemented in 2009. The initial use of the report was to help the home owners when making their sell, but now there are very many opportunities that the owner can benefit from even when they are not inclined to sell these properties.
This energy performance appraisal on the house should be done periodically so that the owner can be able to reap its benefits. With this new regulation energy companies have now been made to offer grants for making home improvements. This was brought about by the attempt by the government to reduce the amount of carbon emission from domestic and commercial properties. What this means is that these energy companies are obligated to provide funds that homeowners can use to make the necessary improvements and installations to conserve energy. That is why using professional companies to make regular check ups on any property can make the owner be able to claim for these grants.
Fuel grants is another opportunity offered by the government. This stipulates that anybody can claim for fuel benefits or funds so that they can make installations of insulations on their property. This is only possible if the owner of the home knows whether he/she requires the improvements or not. With a regularly updated EPC, the owner will be able to apply for these grants at any time. This type of grant is afforded to tenants of private housings as well as those who own their own homes.
Together with the grants, is a landlord’s energy saving allowance that the government has introduced to encourage these landlords to take measures on energy efficiency on their properties. These are tax incentives that allow landlord make instillations in their properties at discounted prices. There are two types of landlords’ energy saving allowances that is offered by the government. For small landlords, they get the Landlords Energy Saving Allowance and for owners with large businesses and some private landlords they get the Enhances Capital Allowance. The enhanced capital allowance for large business property owners allows these landlords to claim their full tax money whenever they purchase and install energy saving devices. Most of these taxes paid are corporate taxes. This grant is not offered on all the technologies bought. That is why it every landlord is advised to seek guidance whenever they are thinking of making such investments on their houses.
Most of the EPC ratings can be done by professional companies who have the expertise to conduct the inspections. These are domestic energy assessors or commercial energy assessors who will help you make periodic up dates on the energy performance certificates that the landlord can use to get grants for making improvements on the houses. These assessors offer their services at certain prices and they also offer advice on how to go about improving the energy performance of any property. Moreover, they can advice you on how to go about getting these grants.
