On 25 October 2022, the Energy Prices Bill received Royal Assent and is now called the Energy Prices Act 2022. You will be aware of this because it applies to all homes in England, Scotland, and Wales to help with domestic energy costs.

We wanted to summarise how this Act will impact you if you are a landlord.

The Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) states the reduction of the unit cost of electricity and gas. This will ensure that a typical household pays, on average, around £2,500 a year on their energy bill, for the next 2 years, from 1 October 2022 until 30 September 2024.

In addition, the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) offers a discount of £400 to eligible households to help with their energy bills from winter 2022 to 2023. This does not need to be paid back to the Government. Energy suppliers are contacting their customers to explain how the discount will be applied. In October and November, there will be a £66 discount, and then in December, January, February, and March a £67 discount.

Your responsibility as a landlord

You need to check that the discount offered is passed on for the benefit of the tenants in your properties.

The EPG will automatically reduce the cost of electricity and gas for any domestic energy contract. Therefore, you should not charge the tenant above the maximum resale price if they charge based on usage.

• The tenant may recover the amount specified by the landlord if not received by a 'specified time'
• The landlord is obliged to provide information to the tenant to understand and enforce the passing on of the benefits.
• The landlord may have to provide information to the Secretary of State for monitoring, audit and keeping the passing on of these benefits under review

If you charge a fixed rate for bills within the rent (all inclusive), then you should pass the EPG and EBSS benefits on to the tenant if provided for in the tenancy agreement.

The UK Government's advice is, in these circumstances, landlords who resell energy to their tenants should pass the discounted payments on appropriately, in line with Ofgem rules to protect tenants. Meaning that the landlord should not charge more than the maximum resale price of energy to their tenants:

• landlords are encouraged to come to an agreement with tenants on the discount in line with the arrangement in the tenancy agreement
• the landlord’s fixed charge may already provide tenants with similar protection from the impact of the energy price increase

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