What are the potential issues for landlords and tenants?
Under the proposed scheme, building owners may need to collect information on energy efficiency/usage not only from their own records but also from tenants. This will require landlords to have access to tenant records on an annual basis. Many commercial leases do not contain any clauses that provide a landlord with the rights of access needed for this kind of information gathering. So it may be necessary to review existing leases for this purpose and to consider including access clauses within any future leases. While the Consultation Documents make it clear there will be mandatory obligations on tenants to provide this information, they identify that information will be provided to the ‘assessor’ and specifically state not to the landlord. Accordingly, a clause in the lease may be necessary to ensure landlords have access to the necessary information so they can prepare relevant reports and obtain ratings as and when needed. What’s next for the scheme? The Government is currently in t
