THE PROPERTY FILTER TAKE
The Guardian analysed around 700 rental homes on the royal estates and found one in five rated EPC F or G, the two worst bands (Letting Agent Today, 17 August 2026).
The same rules apply to your portfolio: letting below EPC E without a registered exemption carries a penalty of up to £5,000 per property, against a spending cap of £3,500.
Consider pulling the EPC for every home you let, and checking whether any exemption you rely on is actually registered.
One in five rental homes on the royal estates of King Charles and Prince William rates F or G on its EPC (Energy Performance Certificate). Those are the two worst bands on the scale. The Guardian analysed around 700 domestic lets across the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall and the Sandringham estate. The finding was reported on 17 August (Letting Agent Today, 17 August 2026). More than 100 of those homes sit below the legal minimum for a new letting (LandlordZone, 17 August 2026). The royal angle got the headlines. The compliance angle is the one that costs you money.
How many royal rental homes fail the EPC rules?
The headline proportion is one in five, or 20%. The Guardian's analysis covered some 700 domestic lets on the two duchies and the Sandringham estate. Letting Agent Today reported the F and G share on 17 August 2026. Since 2020 it has been illegal to let a home rated below E unless a valid exemption is registered.
The exemption side is where this gets useful for everyone else. Fewer than one in 12 of the F and G-rated properties the Guardian inspected had an exemption registered (Letting Agent Today, 17 August 2026). An exemption you have not filed is not an exemption. Our free property resources are a sensible starting point if you want to run that check across your own stock.
Some of the homes fall outside the rules entirely. They apply only to tenancies that began after October 2008, and certain farmhouse tenancies are not caught. If you hold older properties on long-standing agreements, that same gap may be quietly protecting you, which makes a live record of every EPC and tenancy start date worth keeping. That is the kind of housekeeping our business and systems coverage deals with.
What MEES costs a landlord, and what it saves
MEES (the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard) caps what a landlord is asked to spend. The jurisdiction is written into the name of the rules themselves, the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015, so this is an England and Wales standard. Scotland and Northern Ireland operate separate regimes.
Letting Agent Today reported that landlords must spend up to £3,500 per property to reach the standard, or cite one of the permitted exemptions. Carry on letting without doing either and the penalty runs to £5,000 per property. So the maximum spend is £1,500 less than the maximum fine. And the retrofit (upgrading an existing building's insulation, glazing and heating) leaves a warmer home and a smaller energy bill behind it. That spend does move your rental coverage, so a pass through our free stress test calculator before you commit is time well spent.
What changes before the 2030 EPC C deadline?
The bigger number sits ahead of everyone. LandlordZone reported on 17 August 2026 that landlords will need an EPC rating of C or higher by 2030. The same report put the royal bill at up to £10 million to upgrade hundreds of properties on their private estates.
The estates say money is already going in. The Duchy of Lancaster pointed to listed and historic status making improvements difficult, and said it invested more than £3 million in residential repairs and upgrades over the past year. The Duchy of Cornwall said it has spent £11 million on home improvements since 2022. Sandringham said it is fully compliant with MEES (LandlordZone, 17 August 2026).
None of that changes the position for a landlord with three properties or thirty. Moving older stock from E to C by 2030 is a fabric job on most homes, and that capital competes with your next purchase. If you are weighing one against the other, our property investment strategies section is the place to start.
Key takeaways
One in five of around 700 royal rental homes analysed by the Guardian holds an EPC rating of F or G (Letting Agent Today, 17 August 2026).
Fewer than one in 12 of those F and G-rated properties had a registered exemption.
Letting below EPC E in England and Wales carries a penalty of up to £5,000 per property, against a compliance spending cap of £3,500.
MEES applies only to tenancies that began after October 2008, and certain farmhouse tenancies fall outside it.
Landlords will need EPC C or higher by 2030, a step LandlordZone reported could cost the royal estates up to £10 million.
Frequently asked questions
What EPC rating does a rental property need today?
How much do I have to spend to reach the standard?
What is the penalty for letting a substandard home?
Does MEES apply to every tenancy I have?
When does the EPC C requirement start?
