'Landlords should have to bring rental properties up to minimum BER' – Green Party

'I don’t think it is fair for people to be paying rent in a D4 energy rated house in this day and age,' said Green Party deputy leader Senator Róisín Garvey

Landlords who can not pay upfront for the work to bring up their property's BER can borrow €5,000 to €75,000 under the new energy efficiency loan scheme with interest rates as low as 3%. Picture: iStock

Landlords should be required to ensure their rental properties have a minimum building energy rating (BER), the deputy leader of the Green Party has said.

Senator Róisín Garvey has said the move would benefit both the landlords and the tenants.

By raising the energy rating, tenants would be living in a home that is warm and would not have issues such as damp and mould while the value of the property would increase. Ms Garvey said: 

I don’t think it is fair for people to be paying rent in a D4 energy rated house in this day and age. 

Some landlords have already taken the steps to bring the rating of their properties up but Ms Garvey is hoping that this number can be increased.

Landlords who do not have the money to pay upfront for the necessary work can avail of a new loan introduced in June which allows homeowners to borrow between €5,000 to €75,000 to make their homes more energy efficient with interest rates as low as 3%.

“We have been retrofitting social housing stock but it’s not all done but in the meantime, I think that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try and entice landlords,” the Clare senator said. 

“These grants may not be around forever but if you avail of them it is something that you can do that automatically increases the value of your home.”

Getting as many homes retrofitted, along with building energy-efficient homes, is necessary if the Government is serious about helping to bring down people’s cost of living and about reaching our climate targets, said Ms Garvey.

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The strategy that is being proposed is something she is hoping to include in the party’s budget submission.

A recent report by the Oireachtas social protection committee detailed the mental and physical health impact of fuel poverty.

Committee chairman Denis Naughten said energy-inefficient homes make life harder for families.