Next in our series on the new laws being introduced on 23^rd March 2020 is the changes to the law surrounding water efficiency measures.

It has been the case for the last 10 years that for a landlord to charge their tenant for water usage, that the property must be separately metered and have water savers installed.

There is a change to this law, which will see the requirements tightened up.  From 23^rd March 2020 a landlord will be required to have the property checked at the start of any tenancy to ensure that there are no leaking taps, including external taps and toilet cisterns.  Along with this, the law will require that water savers are checked at the same time to ensure that they are still working correctly.

This means that every time that you have a new tenant go into your property, you will be required to send a plumber to the property have these items checked.  I have been in touch with some of our regular plumbers and organised a set price with them for this work, where they will have a set fee for attending to this work, which will only be increased if there is work to be done to rectify any leaks or water savers.

You do have the ability to choose not to go forward with this work, but this will also mean that you are no longer able to charge your tenant for their water usage.

The second part of this change is the introduction of a requirement for all toilet cisterns to be dual flush, with a minimum 3 star rating.  There is a grace period on this requirement, where it does not come into effect until 23^rd March 2025, giving you time to get your property compliant.  Our office will be informing our landlords whether this is a requirement for them over the next little while, at our routine inspections.  Once you know if you need to have this done, you can begin to budget for having it done prior to the requirement becoming law, during the 5 year grace period.

I am more than happy to discuss these changes with you, if you are concerned about them, or do not understand what it is that you need to be doing, you can give me a call at the office on 63525125.