“Climate Energy” law: towards a two-speed energy renovation?

Column by Raphaël Eulry, Marketing & Communication Director at AC Environnement and former local elected representative

It is no longer a "transition", it is an energy "revolution" that will weigh on rentals and real estate transactions tomorrow. And there are landlords and landlords who have had to take a serious heatstroke since parliamentarians, in the heat of the summer heat wave, decided to make drastic and restrictive transfers and rentals of property which would turn out to be energy colanders.

Everything is in the text of the so-called “Climate Energy Law”, with measures gradually applicable by 2028. But better will not be worth waiting too long because the first new constraints will be imposed in less than two years.

From 2021, lessors of housing whose energy label will be F or G - the worst assessment in the energy performance diagnosis, the famous DPE - will not have the right to increase the rent without the have renovated beforehand. They will also not have the right to pass on the costs of the work to the rental charges.

In 2022, an owner or lessor of a poorly insulated property will have to inform the buyer or tenant in detail of his future energy expenses. Above all, it will have to complete its energy performance diagnosis (DPE) with a much more detailed energy audit, carried out by an expert, for several hundred euros. This audit will give rise to a report containing proposals for work to improve housing performance, with precise estimated costs.

This point is undoubtedly a good thing for the purchaser of a property: he will be able to assess more specifically upstream his acquisition price and will thus benefit if necessary from arguments to negotiate the price displayed by the seller. But above all, the buyer will better anticipate the cost price of the work that he would be tempted to carry out to improve the energy performance of his apartment, his house or his building.