What is the minimum EPC rating to let a home in England?

The rule today

The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (often called MEES) says you must not let a home in England on an assured, regulated or domestic agricultural tenancy if its Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is rated F or G, unless you have registered a valid exemption. Since 1 May 2026 every new private tenancy is an assured periodic tenancy, so the rule covers almost every private let.

It applies where the home is legally required to have an EPC, which is the case whenever you let or sell it. In practice:

• get an EPC from an accredited assessor before you advertise;
• give the tenant a copy, and show the rating in the advert;
• an EPC lasts ten years: check its date on the register before each new tenancy.

If your home is rated F or G

You must make improvements until it reaches E, or until you have spent the cost cap. Under the current rules you do not have to spend more than £3,500 including VAT on improvements. If the home is still below E after that, or after every improvement that was recommended and could be made, you may register an exemption.

Keep the invoices and the new EPC. The work that counts is the work on the EPC's recommendations.

The exemptions

Each is registered on the government's PRS Exemptions Register, which the public can search:

• All relevant improvements made: lasts five years.
• High cost: the cheapest recommended measure would cost more than the cap; five years.
• Wall insulation: an expert says insulating the walls would harm the building; five years.
• Consent: a tenant, a freeholder, a lender or the planning authority refused consent; five years.
• Devaluation: a surveyor says the work would cut the home's value by more than 5%; five years.
• New landlord: six months from becoming the landlord, in some situations.

You need evidence for each, uploaded when you register. An exemption belongs to the landlord who registered it: a buyer has to look at the home afresh.

Penalties

The council enforces the rule. It can fine up to £2,000 for letting below E for less than three months, up to £4,000 for three months or more, up to £1,000 for false information on the register and up to £2,000 for not answering a compliance notice, with a total of up to £5,000 per home for each breach. It can also publish the breach.

What is coming: EPC C by 2030

On 21 January 2026 the government published its response to the 2025 consultation. What it says it will do:

• one date, 1 October 2030, for every private tenancy, new and existing;
• the standard will be measured with the new style of EPC (a fabric performance score first, then either the heating system or "smart readiness", the landlord's choice);
• a cost cap of £10,000 per home, with a lower cap for homes worth under £100,000;
• a home rated C or better on today's energy efficiency rating on an EPC issued before 1 October 2029 will count as meeting the standard until that EPC runs out;
• new exemptions, and a higher maximum penalty (it proposes up to £30,000).

This is not yet law. The government says it needs new powers from Parliament and new regulations. Until they are made, E is the legal minimum. Check GOV.UK for the date that applies to you before planning large work.

What to do now

1. Look up your EPC on the register and note its rating and expiry.
2. If it is F or G, do not start a new tenancy until it is E or an exemption is registered.
3. If it is D or E, read the recommendations now: work done before 2029 that lifts the home to C may save a second round of work.
4. Keep every invoice and certificate in one place.

LevelMoves can keep the EPC's expiry date with the home and remind you before it runs out.

This guide is information about the law in England, not legal advice.