THE NON-DOMESTIC PRIVATE RENTED PROPERTY MINIMUM STANDARD

Chapter 3: Exclusions and Exemptions
remain valid for as long as that tenant remains the tenant.
Reasonable Efforts to Obtain Consents
1. The Regulations require the landlord to make ‘reasonable efforts’ to obtain
third party consent. Reasonable efforts may include attempts on a number
of separate occasions and using a number of different available means of
communication to secure agreement from, for example, a tenant or
superior landlord, with evidence to show this had been done (in the case
of planning consent refusal, evidence of a single application and
subsequent refusal is likely to be sufficient evidence).
2.
3. Broadly speaking, it is thought that that it will not be reasonable for the
landlord to comply with a condition which may reduce the landlord’s ability
to let the property or if it involves unreasonable costs. Where the
landlord does not agree with an enforcement authority’s review of a
penalty notice, he or she can appeal to the First Tier Tribunal.
4.
68. The Regulations also allow for an exemption where a Landlord has proposed
to fund the improvements through a Green Deal plan but the tenant has
refused to give the consent required for the Green Deal plan 28 . However, as
Green Deal finance is not currently available for non-domestic properties, this
is not relevant.
3.1.2 Property devaluation exemption (Regulation 32 and Regulation 36 (2))
69. A temporary exemption of five years from meeting the minimum standard will
apply where the landlord has obtained a report from an independent surveyor
who is on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) register of
valuers 29 advising that the installation of specific energy efficiency measures
would reduce the market value of the property, or the building it forms part of,
by more than five per cent. The property valuation must not include the cost
of the measures themselves or the cost of installation. This temporary
28 The tenant consent requirements of a Green Deal plan are set out in Regulation 36 of the Green Deal Framework
(Disclosure, Acknowledgement, Redress etc.) Regulations 2012. Please note however that, at this time, Green Deal
finance for a new Green Deal plan is not available.
29 The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ register of valuers may be accessed via their website:
http://www.ricsfirms.com/ . Please note that the RICS register contains the details of surveyors covering a range of
disciplines, therefore landlords seeking a valuation report for the purposes of a property devaluation exemption are
advised to check that any valuer they intend to instruct is competent to carry out a valuation of this nature.
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