Electrical Safety, the deadly facts

According to the Electrical Safety Council (June 2009), there are over 30 deaths and nearly 4000 injuries caused by electrical accidents and the 8000 fires each year in the home.

Electrical Regulations for landlords

Most of these accidents involve faults either in or mis-use of, domestic appliances, flexes, plugs or connectors. Further more, A large number are related to electrical maintenance or DIY activities.

The Landlords and Tenants Act 1985 requires that the electrical installation in a rented property is:

  • safe when a tenancy begins and
  • maintained in a safe condition throughout the tenancy.

The Act makes it an implied term of every tenancy that the landlord will keep in repair the structure and exterior of the property and keeps in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for the supply of water, gas and electricity, as well as sanitation, space heating and water heating.

Because of the frequency of changes to the relevant regulations, as well as the fact that all responsible landlords want to ensure that their tenants are safe, it is advisable to have all electrical appliances and wiring checked on a regular basis.

There has in fact been an obligation on landlords to ensure that all electrical equipment is safe ever since 1994 when both the ‘Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations’ and the ‘Plugs and Sockets (Safety) Regulations’ were introduced. Enforced by the Health & Safety Executive, these regulations come under the Consumer Protection Act of 1987.

To summarise:

  • All electrical appliances have to be complete, intact and in safe working order.
  • All second-hand electrical equipment must to be checked.
  • Operating instructions and safety warning notices have to be supplied with the Appliances.
  • All flexes have to be in good order and properly attached to appliances and plugs.
  • Earth tags should be in place.
  • Plugs should be of an approved type with sleeved live and neutral pins.
  • Plugs and sockets need to conform to BS1363 or, for heavy duty uses, to BS 1363/A.
  • All fuses have to be the correct type and of the right rating.
  • All fuse ratings should be listed on the inventory.
  • All tenants must know the location (and have access to) to the main consumer unit, fuses and isolator switch.

For more information, The Landlords’ Guide to Electrical Safety is an excellent publication produced by The Electrical Safety Council.