Currently, anyone selling a property in the UK is required to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) before they put the property on the market. However, even though the EPC is in the pipeline, the full details of how energy efficient a property is aren’t always available for early viewers.

In a bid to get over this issue, and help encourage home owners to become more energy efficient aware, a new EU Directive will come into force in 2012 making it compulsory for all EPC ratings to be published upfront with for sale adverts, so that everyone will know the ratings before they even look at a property.

If you’re thinking of putting one of your investment properties on the market in the next few years, then experts are advising that it’s a good idea to check the energy efficiency of your property now and, if necessary, get energy improvement work done sooner, rather than later.

In addition to improving individual properties, the new legislation will also help the government on its bid to reduce household carbon emissions by 29% by the year 2020.

John Healey, government Housing and Planning Minister, recently announced details of various new plans and legislation that will affect landlords, including the news that landlords will soon require planning permission to turn a residential property into an HMO (house with multiple occupation) with three or more unrelated tenants living in it.

Under the current legislation, you only need to obtain planning permission from your local council if the property will have six or more tenants living in it. Whilst the idea is that it will help give more control over unregulated changes and improve standards for tenants, it may not be quite such good news for landlords, especially as they’ll be more paperwork and waiting involved.

The new legislation is due to come into force by April 2010 and will affect any new plans to change the use of a property and turn it into a new HMO. Local planning offices are often already busy, so applications could take a while, which may deter some investors from going down this route.

If you’ve already got an HMO property, then this is unlikely to affect you, but would it put you off plans to opt for HMO properties in the future? We’d love to hear your views.