As a landlord, you have a duty of care to your tenants that you must fulfil. Within this duty of care, you have a legal responsibility to ensure that your property is safe
By Shannon Hall
An electrical safety certificate ensures that appliances are safe to use; the electrical installation must be completely safe.
Unlike the Gas Safety Regulations, in England there is no mandatory requirement for the installation to undergo any safety testing unless the property is an HMO, but there is a legal requirement for any property to be inspected by a competent person prior to being offered for rent for the first time – keep a record of this Inspection Report.
Note, in Scotland, an EICR or Electrical Installation and Condition Report plus Portable Appliance Test is a legal requirement.
You can arrange an EICR to be completed by a qualified electrician here.
In the event that a person is hurt, or worse, a Landlord may face expensive litigation if he cannot show that he was duly diligent with the electric system and therefore having a full Electric Inspection Certificate, which lasts for up to 5 years, throughout the Tenancy would protect the Landlord from this situation.
There is a legal requirement for a visual inspection to be carried out at the turn of every tenancy or annually, whichever happens first. This can be done by the Landlord but any remedial work must be carried out by a competent person.
Although there is no requirement for equipment to be checked, it’s recommended for every Landlord to check all electrical appliances before the start of a tenancy and regularly thereafter. If the property is an HMO, all appliances that are not hard wired in must have a Portable Appliance Test annually or at the turn of each Tenancy, whichever happens first.
The following guidelines apply to all electrical appliances supplied for the tenancy:
This regulation requires that any plug, socket or adapter supplied for intended domestic use complies with the appropriate current standard, and specifically that:
The live and neutral pins on plugs are part insulated so as to prevent shocks when removing plugs from sockets and all plugs are pre-wired.
Arrange for a portable appliance test to be completed by a qualified electrician here.
As a landlord, you have a duty of care to your tenants that you must fulfil. Within this duty of care, you have a legal responsibility to ensure that your property is safe
In January 2020, the government announced the much-anticipated introduction of mandatory electrical safety inspections for private landlords. The new regulations, titled The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020,
Mandatory electrical safety checks for all landlords have been on the horizon for a long while. Currently, though there is a legal requirement for landlords to carry out fixed electrical installation inspections on
According to Electrical Safety First, a UK based charity, electricity is the cause of more than 20,000 fires a year - almost half of all accidental UK house fires. With this in mind,
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