Over 300,000 landlords in line for surprise 'tax' of up to £5,000!

The tax is designed be levied on landlords in order to encourage them to make their properties more energy efficient, and will see them facing costs to install featured such as cavity wall insulation and new boilers from 2018.

Before it was scrapped, landlords could have taken advantage of the Green Deal scheme to make such improvements, which would have seen such payments being repaid by tenants who would in turn have benefitted from lower costs. However, it is now up to landlords to shoulder this additional cost, which is being estimated at around £5,000.

The worst affected are likely to be landlords who snapped up period properties. Whilst these properties are often very appealing to renters who lust after period features and spacious rooms, they are often far less energy efficient than their modern counterparts, and in turn may require more substantial work in order to modernise them in line with suggested guidelines.

Experts in the sector are already voicing concern that these changes could see the price of rents pushed even higher, as landlords forced to pay out for ‘green amendments’ pass the price on to their tenants. Richard Jones, policy advisor at the Residential Landlords Association, believes that ‘unless they make funding available, landlords will be forced to pass these costs on to tenants. It could also make being a buy-to-let landlord prohibitive. They could struggle to find such a large amount of money upfront.’