Article by Phil
Quite possibly, according to the governments new proposed Building and Energy Strategy document.
It seems the government is considering imposing requirements on mortgage lenders to reduce the Energy Performance Certificate ratings across their portfolios to an average of a C rating. What that would mean is that mortgage lenders would have to take into consideration a properties EPC rating before deciding whether to lend against it.
The implications are potentially far reaching.
Currently EPC ratings are a matter between buyers and sellers. Buyers may not be interested in properties if they are energy inefficient and equally sellers may want to improve their energy efficiencies if they want to attract more buyers. Currently this is down to the individual homeowner to decide. Involving mortgage lenders will remove this individual responsibility. But what if homes can’t be improved, or homeowners can’t afford to improve their home.
Remember the UK has a high proportion of older housing stock, some of it listed with alteration conditions attached. What the government could end up doing is locking people in older housing stock into their homes because they can’t sell them. (because buyers can’t get mortgages)
Equally that could affect the ability of new homeowners to get onto the housing ladder and others to downsize for example. Do we really want the government using the housing market in its attempts to meet arbitrary climate targets.
I’m not sure that this is likely to be a vote winner?
Mortgage and Money Advisors will also be impacted by these changesof course as well.
