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Proposed New Changes to Electrical Item Standards

Another month, more changes to the requirements from landlords. This time, there are some proposed changes to electrical safety standards about which you need to be aware. In July, James Brokenshire who took up the post of Housing, Communities and Local Government in April following a reshuffle, announced new plans for inspections of electrical installations to take place every five years.

 

Why is this Happening?

Its one of many sweeping changes to housing safety regulation since the establishment of a cross-party government working group in 2016. All the recommendations come about following the end of that consultation on current standards of electrical safety. It followed the newly-introduced Housing and Planning Act 2016 which highlighted some areas of concern that required addressing and taking advice from tenant groups. Only of the issues of concern showed that safety features in private rental properties are inadequate compared to social housing. It appears that tenants in private housing face much higher safety risks associated with electrical faults.

 

Greater Fire Risk

To provide some figures for context, in 2014, 77% of Housing association properties and 72% of properties owned by local authorities installed all five of the recommended electrical safety features. For private housing stock, that figure was just 59%. Concerned by this figure, the working group concluded in November that a whole new set of standards would be required applying to regulation to ensure that improvements are made across in private rental properties.

These recommendations include:

  • The introduction of new legislation which would first apply to new tenancies and then gradually increased to cover existing tenancies
  • A scheme, much like the building regulation competent scheme, to apply to electrical testing competency
  • The encouragement of visual checks of installations and appliances between each tenancy (for student tenants that would be every year in most cases) rather than a mandatory testing system
  • Encouragement of installation of residual current devices (RCDs). These are a modern type of circuit breaker that cut out to reduce the risk of electrocution

 

Some Concerns Have Been Aired

A separate consultation on building regulations. Nothing has been decided as yet, but the measures have been welcomed by landlord and tenant groups alike. That’s not to say there has been no complaint or concerns raised. As expected, some have come forward to express concerns about the cost of all these new measures, including knock-on effects for rental prices for tenants.

 Concerns have also been expressed about the ongoing increase in regulations putting a strain on profit and seeking to dictate every aspect of the tenant-landlord relationship. Landlords are being urged to take the initiative and pre-empt some of these measures before they are formally introduced into industry regulation.