EPC rules for landlords: band E now, band C by 2030

Today a privately rented home in England or Wales must have an Energy Performance Certificate rated E or better, unless the landlord has registered a valid exemption. That has applied to every tenancy since 1 April 2020. The government has now confirmed that the minimum will rise to C for every tenancy by 1 October 2030, with a cap of £10,000 per property on what a landlord can be required to spend. The higher standard still needs legislation, so band E is the law for now. The details are in the government's response to the consultation on improving privately rented homes, published 21 January 2026.

So there are two sets of rules to keep in view: the ones you are answerable to now, and the ones that decide what you should be planning for over the next four years.

The rule today: band E

The minimum energy efficiency standard stops a landlord letting, or continuing to let, a property rated F or G. It covers existing tenancies as well as new ones.

If a property is below E, you have to improve it. You are not required to spend more than £3,500 including VAT. If the recommended improvements cost more than that, or you have spent up to the cap and the property is still below E, you register an exemption on the PRS Exemptions Register and you may then let it.

Most exemptions last five years. After that, you have to try again. Someone who has just become the landlord, for example by inheriting a tenanted property, can register a six-month exemption while they sort it out.

A council that finds a breach can fine up to £2,000 for letting a non-compliant property for less than three months, and up to £4,000 for three months or more. There are smaller penalties for putting false information on the register or ignoring a compliance notice. The maximum is £5,000 per property in total, and the council can also publish the breach. The register is public.

An EPC lasts ten years. You need a valid one before you market or let the property, and you have to give a copy to a prospective tenant. You can look up any property's certificate free on the GOV.UK register. It is worth doing before a renewal is due, because the recommendations section tells you what an assessor thought would move the rating.

What changes by 2030

These are the main decisions in the government response. All of them still need Parliament's approval.

• The new minimum is C, for every tenancy, from 1 October 2030. The consultation had proposed applying it to new tenancies from 2028 first. That was dropped, so there is now one date for everyone.
• The cost cap rises to £10,000 per property, and it covers ten years. Once the new rules are in force, money spent on relevant energy efficiency improvements since 1 October 2025 will count towards it. The government's own impact assessment puts the average spend needed at about £5,400.
• Cheaper homes get a lower cap. If a property is worth less than £100,000, the most you will have to spend is 10% of its value.
• The maximum fine rises to £30,000 per property per breach. That needs a new Act of Parliament, and the government is aiming for the legislation to be in force in 2027.
• The exemptions change. The cost cap gets its own exemption, as do "negative impacts" and solid wall insulation, and a property value adjustment is added for cheaper homes. Those last ten years. The high-cost and third-party-consent exemptions stay as they are, and the new-landlord exemption stays at six months.
• Short-term lets are excluded for now, but the government is keeping that under review.

C on which measure?

This is the part most likely to catch people out. Today's EPC gives you one headline figure, the Energy Efficiency Rating. Reformed EPCs will replace it with four new metrics: fabric performance, heating system, smart readiness and energy cost. The 2030 standard will be measured on two of them. Fabric performance is compulsory, and you choose either heating system or smart readiness as the second.

In practice, a property that scores C on today's rating may not score C on fabric performance. A home that relies on an efficient boiler but has thin insulation could find the new measure much harder than the old one.

Reformed EPCs were due from October 2026. On 9 March 2026 the government moved their launch to the second half of 2027. Existing certificates keep their ten-year validity.

The transition rule worth knowing about

Early action counts. If a property scores C or higher on today's Energy Efficiency Rating on an EPC dated before 1 October 2029, it counts as meeting the higher standard until that EPC expires or is replaced.

That cuts both ways. A C certificate lodged in 2029 could cover a property well into the 2030s, which the government's own Decent Homes Standard policy statement acknowledges could run as far as 2039. But replacing that certificate early, for example to show off a new boiler, ends the protection. You would then be measured on the new metrics.

If a property is not at C on the old rating before 1 October 2029, you will need a reformed EPC before starting work, then another after the work to show compliance.

What to do with this now

None of this means work has to start this year. These four things do not depend on how the details settle:

1. Look up the current certificate for each property, and note its rating, its expiry date and its recommendations.
2. Keep the invoice for every energy efficiency job from 1 October 2025 onwards. Spending from that date will count towards the £10,000 cap, and a cap you cannot evidence is a cap you cannot rely on.
3. If a property is already C, keep its EPC current rather than replacing it out of curiosity.
4. If a property is at E or D, read the recommendations alongside anything you were going to do anyway. A boiler at the end of its life or a roof that needs work is cheaper to improve at the same time.

The government has also said it is considering whether to require a new EPC whenever one expires on a rented home. Until that is decided, the expiry date matters most the next time you market the property. Either way, it is worth tracking.

Where Tenarize fits

The EPC is the third item on the compliance checklist every tenancy goes through, and it can't be ticked without the certificate attached. When you upload it, you can record its rating. A property rated F or G is then flagged "Below minimum (E) — letting may be unlawful" wherever that certificate appears.

The expiry date drives the reminders: a notification before the certificate lapses, and an email too unless you have switched compliance emails off. Sixty days out, you can arrange the renewal with an assessor from your own supplier list. When improvement work is done, the job records what it cost and keeps the invoice against the property. That is the paper trail the cost cap will ask for.

What Tenarize does not do: it does not assess a property, read an EPC's recommendations, or register an exemption for you. It does not yet warn about a D or E rating against the 2030 standard, because that standard is not law yet. It also does not add up your spending towards the £10,000 cap. The costs are recorded job by job, and the total, and whether each job counts, is for you to work out.

Where to check this yourself

• Minimum energy efficiency standard: landlord guidance — GOV.UK, the rules today, including the exemptions and the penalties
• Find an energy certificate — GOV.UK, free lookup of any property's EPC
• Improving the energy performance of privately rented homes: government response — GOV.UK, 21 January 2026, the band C decisions
• Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime — GOV.UK, the new metrics and the 2027 launch
• The compliance checklist for letting in England — where the EPC sits among everything else required before a tenancy starts
• Shelter and Citizens Advice — free, independent advice on a specific property

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