New electrical safety rules are on the way for buy to let and shared home landlords in England.
Housing minister Heather Wheeler wants to raise standards in the private rental sector as statistics show that private renters face a higher risk of shocks and fires triggered by electrical faults than tenants in social housing.
“Everyone deserves a safe place to live. While measures are already in place to crack down on the minority of landlords who rent out unsafe properties we need to do more to protect tenants,” said the minister.
“That’s why we introduced powers to enable stronger electrical safety standards to be brought in along with tough penalties for those who don’t comply.
“We want to ensure we strike the right balance between protecting tenants while being fair for landlords. I want to hear from as many people as possible whether these independent recommendations are the right approach.”
The new safety recommendations cover:
- Five-year electrical safety checks for all private rented homes
- Safety certificates confirming installation checks and any repairs have been completed given to renters at the start of a tenancy which are available to a local authority on request
- Setting up a private rented sector electrical testing competent person scheme to ensure trained experts undertake this work.
- Testing and visual checks of electrical appliances supplied by landlords at change of tenancy promoted as good practice and set out in guidance.
An eight-week consultation asking for landlord and tenant views about the new rules ends on April 16, 2018.
“Ensuring that electrical installations are safe benefits both landlords and tenants by helping to prevent fires,” said Wheeler.
The government calculates the new measure will cost landlords £160 every five years, with an extra £97 a landlord each year spent on repairs and maintenance.
Modern properties have trip fuse boxes covering all aspects of appliance & lighting supply.
Any mili amp differences in current between positive & negative wires & or earth causes an immediate trip & supply cannot be reinstated until a fault is corrected. Thus safeguarding all users, hence a cost of 160.00 per property will cause large costs to multi property landlords.
The usual remedy will apply. Increased rents to cover more new & largely unnecessary legislation.
The tenant being last in line will always have to pay the increased bill.
To sum up:
Electrical and fire safety should be a priority for all homes. This should require passing a safety check and getting a certificate say every 5 years.
1) Private homes, rented, owned or shared.
2) social or council housing (after Grenville Towers and the other previous high rise blocks, can they really say this type of housing is safer? When fires do get out of control they have devastating results.)
3) educational and other types of residential accommodation/ care homes whether in the private or public sector. And homes owned in the public sector such as MOD etc.
99% of installations are safe as they comply with the rules in force at the time of installation. But If it was not wired in the last two years it will not comply with the latest rules as they change every 2 or 3 years.
I agree that homes should have an electrical safety certificate.
Maybe every 5 years or whenever there is an upgrade of electrical safety for ALL residential buildings.
Fut this should be the same for ALL HOMES. Why is it OK to let a family with kids, say, burn because they are not required to follow the same regs as those in rented accommodation? And the regs for those in rented accommodation should be the same as for those in owner occupied homes. The normal fire safety certificate should be adequate when passed.
Rules that apply to private rented accommodation should also apply to council and housing association properties.