EPC rating checker

What an EPC rating means for a renter

The rating is the best free guide you have to how much a home will cost to heat before you move in. Two flats at the same rent can have very different bills: an F-rated home with old electric storage heaters and no insulation will usually cost far more to keep warm than a C-rated flat with a modern gas boiler. The certificate’s own estimated costs give a sense of the difference, although they use the prices at the time of the assessment, so an older certificate will understate today’s bills.

Most privately rented homes sit in the middle. In the English Housing Survey for 2024, 51% of privately rented homes were in bands A to C, 37% in band D and 9% in band E, with an average score of 66, slightly below the average for all homes.

How to use the rating when choosing a home

• Treat a lower rent on a poorly rated home with care: higher heating bills can cancel out the saving.
• Look at the main heating, not just the letter. Electric heating usually costs more to run than mains gas.
• Compare the current and potential rating. A large gap means improvements are possible; ask whether any are planned.
• Check the certificate date. If it is close to ten years old, the home may have changed since, for better or worse.
• Budget for energy alongside rent, council tax, water and broadband before you commit.

Work out what the whole home will cost: average household bills, the council tax band checker and how much rent can I afford?

The minimum EPC rating for rented homes in England

Under the minimum energy efficiency standard, a private landlord can’t let a home rated F or G. Since 1 April 2020 this has applied to every covered tenancy, including existing ones, not just new lets. It covers assured (including assured shorthold) tenancies, regulated tenancies and domestic agricultural tenancies, where the home is legally required to have an EPC.

A landlord doesn’t currently have to spend more than £3,500 including VAT. If they can’t reach band E within that, or another exemption applies, they can register an exemption on the PRS Exemptions Register. Exemptions include high cost, all relevant improvements made, wall insulation that would harm the building, third-party consent refused, devaluation of the property, and a temporary six-month exemption for someone who has just become a landlord. Most exemptions last five years, and the public can search the register. An exemption does not pass to a new owner if the home is sold.

Councils enforce the standard. The fines for letting a substandard home without a valid exemption are up to £2,000 if it has been let for less than three months and up to £4,000 for three months or more, with a total cap of £5,000 per property.

What’s planned: band C by 2030

In January 2026 the Government published its response to its consultation on raising the standard. It has announced that private rented homes will need to meet a higher standard, equivalent to band C, by 1 October 2030. This is a plan, not yet law: the regulations still have to be made, and the Government has said it aims to lay them in 2027. As announced:

• The new standard will be set against new-style EPCs, which the Government plans to introduce, using a fabric performance rating plus either a heating system or a smart readiness rating.
• A home that scores C or higher on its current energy efficiency rating on an EPC lodged before 1 October 2029 will count as compliant until that certificate expires or is replaced.
• Landlords won’t have to spend more than £10,000 per property, and spending on improvements from 1 October 2025 counts towards that cap.
• The maximum fine is to rise to £30,000 per property per breach, which needs primary legislation.

How to improve an EPC rating

The recommendations on the certificate itself are the best place to start: each one shows an indicative cost and the rating the home would reach after it, in order. In general, the measures that stop heat escaping or replace an inefficient heating system move the rating most, and the small ones barely register.

Loft insulation

Cheap and quick where the loft has little or none. One of the most common recommendations on older houses; little effect on a flat with another flat above.

Cavity wall insulation

For homes with unfilled cavity walls. Often one of the better-value improvements to the score.

Solid wall insulation

Internal or external insulation for older solid walls. It can lift the rating a lot but is expensive and disruptive, and is sometimes unsuitable for the building.

Heating system

Replacing an old boiler or old electric heaters is often the largest single change. A heat pump cuts carbon, but its effect on the current rating depends on the home and the electricity prices used.

Heating controls

A programmer, room thermostat and radiator valves. Inexpensive, with a modest effect.

Double or secondary glazing

Makes a home more comfortable, but usually moves the rating less than insulation for the money.

Solar panels

Solar electricity panels can add several points, especially where the rest of the home is already reasonably efficient.

Low-energy lighting

LED bulbs are the cheapest change, but lighting is a small part of the calculation, so the gain is usually a point or two.

What a renter can and can’t do

Improving the rating is the landlord’s job, and meeting the minimum standard is the landlord’s legal duty. As a tenant you can change bulbs and use the heating controls well, but insulation, heating and windows are alterations that most tenancy agreements say need the landlord’s consent. What you can do is ask, in writing, what the rating is, whether any recommended improvements are planned, and when.

Two government schemes are open in England at the time of writing. The Warm Homes: Local Grant is for homeowners and tenants of private landlords in homes rated D to G, usually with a household income of £36,000 or less; tenants can apply, though the landlord may need to pay part of the cost. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme gives property owners, including landlords, £7,500 towards an air or ground source heat pump; tenants can’t apply.

How to check an EPC is genuine and up to date

• Look it up. Every valid certificate is lodged on the official register, which you can search with the checker above or on GOV.UK’s find an energy certificate service by postcode or certificate number.
• Match the address, property type and floor area to the home you are viewing. A certificate for the flat next door, or for the house before an extension, is not the right one.
• Check the date. A certificate is valid for ten years from when it was lodged; the checker shows the expiry date.
• If the details look wrong, contact the assessor named on the certificate first, then their accreditation scheme.

If a rented home has no EPC or is rated below E

If the landlord or agent can’t show you a certificate, ask for the certificate number and search for it. If there really isn’t one, the landlord is in breach of the rules on providing an EPC, which Trading Standards at the local council enforces.

If the home is rated F or G, ask the landlord whether an exemption is registered, and search the PRS Exemptions Register yourself. If there is no exemption, the home generally can’t be let, and the council’s private housing or environmental health team can take action. Before you sign, it is reasonable to ask for improvements to be made first, or to walk away: a band F or G home is likely to be expensive to heat.

Viewing a home? Questions to ask before renting a house and the new tenancy checklist cover the EPC alongside the gas safety certificate, deposit and other documents you should be given.

EPC rating questions

Check more than the energy rating

The free RenterCheck looks up the energy rating alongside the flood zone, crime nearby, conservation area and listed building status, and the sale history for one address.