Important: our series of technical guidance, including this one, will constantly change as we find new things hidden in the legislation. There are also many sub-regulations yet to be published.
18/03/22: updated electrical part and in particular, written confirmation of work.
Continuing with our technical guidance, another significant change introduced by the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (“the Act”) aligns with England for fitness for human habitation, smoke and CO alarms and electrical safety reports.
The smoke alarm, CO alarms and electrical safety inspection rules are brought in by a new fitness for human habitation requirement.
The Renting Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) (Wales) Regulations 2022 are the regulations introducing the new rules.
When the rules apply
The requirement to have a CO alarm applies immediately to all contracts, including existing ones.
For smoke alarms and electrical safety reports, for existing tenancies that are converted, there is to be a 12-month grace period. The rules apply immediately for any new or renewed occupation contract from when the Act starts.
Smoke Alarms
A landlord must ensure there’s a smoke alarm fitted connected to the mains and interlinked on each storey of the dwelling.
For the duration of the contract, at least one of the smoke alarms on each storey must be –
- in repair and proper working order,
- connected to the dwelling’s electrical supply, and
- linked to every other smoke alarm connected to the electrical supply in the dwelling.
If there is more than one smoke alarm on each storey, as long as at least one is connected to the mains, others don’t have to be. The others could be 10-year batteries. The interlinking only applies to linking all smoke alarms connected to the mains.
There’s no requirement for the landlord to test the smoke alarms routinely during the contract, but they must be in repair and in proper working order. If a contract-holder reports a faulty alarm (including the replacement of a battery), it must be repaired by the landlord. They will need testing before a new occupier moves in because the fitness rules require the dwelling to be fit “on the occupation date”.
The dwelling will be regarded as unfit for human habitation when the landlord does not comply with the above requirements until smoke alarms are present and in repair and working order.
CO Alarms
From the commencement of the Act, the landlord must ensure that a carbon monoxide alarm in repair and proper working order is in each room of the dwelling, which contains a gas appliance, an oil-fired combustion appliance or a solid fuel burning combustion appliance. The duty applies to all existing (converted) and new from that date (r.7(3)).
A gas appliance means an appliance for:
- heating,
- lighting,
- cooking or
- other purposes for which gas can be used,
but it does not include-
- a portable or mobile appliance supplied with gas from a cylinder, or the cylinder, pipes and other fittings used for supplying gas to that appliance, or
- an appliance which the contract-holder is entitled to remove from the dwelling under the terms of the occupation contract
A room includes-
- hall,
- landing or
- corridor.
There’s no requirement that a CO alarm is fitted to the dwelling’s electrical supply, so a seven or 10-year battery version would be acceptable.
That being said, if you fit new smoke alarms (which have to be mains interlinked), it’s sensible to make the CO alarm mains powered whilst on.
There also appears to be no issue with having a combined smoke and CO alarm fitted as long as the CO alarm is in an appropriate room.
Note: CO alarms must be in the room which contains a gas, oil-fired or solid fuel appliance, whereas smoke alarms are on each storey of the dwelling.
Like smoke alarms, there’s no requirement on the landlord to test routinely during the contract, but the CO alarm would need to be repaired if reported. They will need testing before a new occupier moves in because the fitness rules require the dwelling to be fit “on the occupation date”.
The dwelling will be regarded as unfit for human habitation when the landlord does not comply with the above requirements until CO alarms are present and in repair and working order.
Example of the positioning of smoke and CO alarms
Suppose a dwelling has two storeys with a gas cooker in the kitchen and a boiler in the hallway, the following would be required:
- Mains interlinked smoke alarms on each storey (usually in the hallways to protect the escape route)
- CO alarm in the kitchen (for the cooker) and
- CO alarm in the hallway (for the boiler).
The hallway with the boiler could be a smoke and CO alarm combined as long as connected to the mains and interlinked.
Electrical safety report
The landlord must ensure that there is a valid electrical condition report in respect of the dwelling.
An electrical condition report is a condition report setting out the results of an electrical safety inspection carried out by a qualified person.
The report will be valid for five years unless the report contains an expiry date of lower than five years, in which case, the date on the report is when the landlord must complete it again.
It’s essential when commissioning a report that you ensure the electrician doesn’t put anything on the report other than “5 years”. Many electricians will put something like “5 years or next change of tenancy”. If they refer to the next tenancy, that is the date the landlord will need a new report if a new occupation contract is completed in less than five years.
Works required on the report
We urge landlords and agents to ensure that when the electrician first visits, they don’t produce a report at that time.
Instead, the electrician should do a visual inspection to identify apparent problems that could cause work to be required. The assessment might look at the condition of the consumer unit (and whether that needs upgrading to metal), lighting (in particular if a fire or waterproof light fitting is required) and the general condition of switches and sockets.
The electrician should replace these obvious items first and then the report completed.
Unusually, the legislation doesn’t mention that any works (if on the report) must be completed within a specific timeframe (compare to England, which requires works identified to be completed within 28 days).
However, in our view, the legislator must have intended that works identified on a report would be completed under the repairing obligations, which allows a reasonable time to get any repairs done (including the electricity installation).
Giving a copy of the report
For an existing converted contract, the landlord must give the report within the timescales outlined earlier (up to 12 months). Ideally, the report would be attached to the written statement (which must be done up to 6 months from conversion).
For a new occupation contract, the landlord must give a copy of the most recent valid report to the contract-holder within seven days of the occupation date. The only sensible option is to attach it to the written statement. When agreeing to the contract terms, the contract-holder will also confirm to have received the electrical report.
If a contract-holder is in occupation and a further report is completed, the landlord must give that new report to the contract-holder within seven days of the inspection.
Written confirmation of works
Providing a written confirmation of works is a separate duty and should not be confused with the safety report described above.
Whenever any investigatory or remedial work is carried out to the electrical installation at the dwelling (whether that work is about a safety report or not) (we will refer to this as “works”), a written confirmation must be given to the contract-holder as outlined below. It’s perplexing to understand why this is a requirement for electrics when there’s no such requirement for works on gas!
Works before occupation
For a new occupation contract starting on or after commencement and existing converted contracts up to 12 months as described earlier, the following is required:
For all works done after the most recent report and before the occupation date, the landlord must provide written confirmation for each work within seven days of the occupation date (but in reality will be attached to the written statement) (r.6(3)(b)):
where investigatory or remedial work has been carried out on or in relation to an electrical service installation in the dwelling after the electrical safety inspection to which that report relates (and before the occupation date), written confirmation of work.
Works during the contract
For all works done after the occupation date, every time some work is done to the electrical installation, a written confirmation must be given to the contract-holder within seven days from when the landlord receives the confirmation (r.6(5)):
Where investigatory or remedial work is carried out on or in relation to an electrical service installation in the dwelling after the occupation date, the landlord must ensure that the contract-holder is given written confirmation of work before the end of the period of 7 days starting with the day on which the landlord received the confirmation.
These written confirmations will need to be retained because any work since the most recent safety report will need to be given to any new contract-holder before that new occupation date.
Treated as unfit
A dwelling is to be treated as unfit for human habitation at a time when the landlord does not have a valid electrical safety inspection report, and the contract-holder has not been given a copy within seven days (except existing converted contracts, which have up to 12 months).
A dwelling is treated as unfit at a time when the contract-holder has not been given a written confirmation of work within seven days.
Possession
No section 173 notice (the no reason notice) may be given when the dwelling is treated as unfit, as outlined on this page.
Reports obtained before the start of the Act
A report obtained before commencement of the Renting Homes Act is acceptable whilst it remains valid (less than five years or date in the report if less) (r.8).
More information
The Welsh Government have produced guidance about the fitness for human habitation rules which includes the matters in this article.
This guidance should be read alongside our fitness and repairing obligations technical guidance as the regulations are the same in many instances.
