Myth-busting – Electrical Safety installations Act 2020

Myth-busting – Electrical Safety installations Act 2020

11:19 AM, 3rd August 2020, About 4 years ago 129

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The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 came into force on 1 June 2020 and will apply to all new tenancies in England from 1 July 2020.

Thanks to Bill Stiles from Adept Electrical – http://www.adeptelectrical.co.uk/ for this simple myth-busting session on the new electrical standards. If your electrician has told you that you need a new fuse board then watch this video first.

This is especially important for HMO’s as councils are now asking for these reports when applying for a licence and if the person is not qualified they are rejecting inspection reports leading to the landlord having to pay for a second report.

These new regulations require landlords to have the electrical installations in their properties inspected at least every 5 years and tested by a person who is qualified and competent. Landlords will also have to provide a copy of the electrical safety report to their tenants as well as to the local authority if requested. For most landlords in the private rented sector, this will not require a change in behaviour. The majority of landlords already check their installations regularly, so they can provide the safest homes possible. However, to ensure every landlord can comply with these regulations, NAPIT have produced the following guidance on the requirements.

The regulations say: Private landlords must ensure every electrical installation in their residential premises is inspected and tested at intervals of no more than 5 years by a qualified and competent person. So look for someone part of NAPIT, NICEIC, Benchmark, OFTEC, STROMA, BESCA, ELECSA and APHC

The regulations apply in England to all new specified tenancies from 1 July 2020 and all existing specified tenancies from 1 April 2021. Following the inspection and testing, a private landlord must: obtain a report from the person conducting that inspection and test, which gives the results of the inspection and test and the date of the next inspection and test supply a copy of that report to each existing tenant of the residential premises within 28 days of the inspection and test supply a copy of that report to the local housing authority within 7 days of receiving a request in writing for it from that authority retain a copy of that report until the next inspection and test is due and supply a copy to the person carrying out the next inspection and test supply a copy of the most recent report to any new tenant of the specified tenancy to which the report relates before that tenant occupies those premises; and any prospective tenant within 28 days of receiving a request in writing for it from that prospective tenant

What ‘report’ should I be asking for?

The regulations just refer to a report being obtained by the person conducting the inspection and test. Typically, an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is used within the industry for this purpose. An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is a report carried out to assess the safety of the existing electrical installation within a property and is used to describe its condition. Parts of the system that are reported on include consumer units, protective bonding, lighting, switches and sockets etc. Its purpose is to confirm as far as possible whether or not the electrical installation is in a safe condition for continued service. The EICR will show whether the electrical installation is in a ‘satisfactory’ or ‘unsatisfactory’ condition and will detail a list of observations affecting the safety or requiring improvements. These observations will be supported by codes.

Unsatisfactory Codes are: C1 – Danger present, risk of injury, immediate remedial action required

C2 – Potentially Dangerous, urgent remedial action required

FI – Further investigation required

A Satisfactory Code is:

C3 – Improvement recommended

Does my electrical installation need to comply with the 18th edition of the Wiring Regulations?

No- not if it is still deemed to be safe. The 18th edition of the Wiring Regulations states: “existing installations that have been installed in accordance with earlier editions of the regulations may not comply with this edition in every respect. This does not necessarily mean that they are unsafe for continued use or require upgrading”.


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Jamie Finch

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10:00 AM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Bill Stiles at 03/08/2020 - 19:19
Hi, thanks very much for your reply but what I was asking was whether my DOMESTIC ELECTRICAL INSTALLATION CERTIFICATE, issued a year ago, can be taken as a valid test certificate as opposed to the standard EICR. The DEI does not have a note as to how long it is valid for, it's just a detailed statement as to the condition of the house electrics and thier saftey and complience at the time of inspection. What do you think please? Thank you

Jamie

DM

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10:20 AM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Jamie Finch at 04/08/2020 - 10:00
I've gone through my certs - and they are all DEIC certificates and just searching EICR images they look the same to me - I guess they testing is the same. On next renewal, I will see if there are different certificates.

Denise G

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10:43 AM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Andrew at 04/08/2020 - 06:40Well as I asked one of the first questions (the first question?), I imagine it's me you're having a dig at.
Yes, I do believe we may have been hoodwinked over the codings - but we don't consider ourselves to be particularly 'naive landlords', having been at this malarkey now for 15+ years. I am a paid up member of Property118 and follow Mark's daily posting's assiduously. I also subscribe to other Landlord groups to ensure I keep myself abreast of legislation and benefit from all of the advice offered.
In as far as Paul's comments about doing due diligence go: these are our first EICRs, I researched those companies in our area offering the service - and then chose a company with affiliation to several trade organsiations and carrying the Kent Trading Standards and Checkatrade kitemarks - and with 100% positive feedback (for now!).
We paid £120 for each inspection, which is about the average fee in our area.
How though, are we expected to know how effectively the inspector sent out will perform? We don't see his report, or how he has coded, until after the work is done and paid for - at which point I did challenge (and, trust me, will continue to challenge should the same guy have done the inspections at our last 2 properties) both the crap he'd included about smoke alarms - which were taken off the schedule of work suggested, as well as his coding of and assertion that we must change plastic fuse boxes for metal ones. That is the point I admit when we were suckered by the statement that the siting of one of them meant it had to be a Code 2 - and into paying them to do the work!
But to use the MOT analogy from someone else's reply, if they do the work, then the re-test is included in the price - exactly as happens with an MOT.
Rest assured this company will not be misleading me again, nor will they keep their 100% positive feedback record - but HOW exactly do I find a trustworthy replacement when we next need one??

Beaver

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10:52 AM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Bill Stiles at 03/08/2020 - 19:37
I don't ever choose solely on price.

The last time I had an EICR done it wasn't required and the electrician pointed out to me a couple of things that weren't required right then, but were safer for the tenant and in his view ought to be done; so I let him do them. Seemed better to me not to penny-pinch and in any case he was still cheaper than the previous guy (who I still paid for his report).

The difficulty you have is distinguishing between the people who are b**********g you just to extract money from you and the honest people. If you can be there face-to-face so that you can eyeball them that helps, but if you have to have the inspection done when you can't be there, e.g. because you have tenants in and live remotely, then it's more problematic. So you need to know your facts - hence the reason this thread has been so popular.

Jamie Finch

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12:22 PM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by DM at 04/08/2020 - 10:20
Hi DM, that's great thanks. I'm going to get back to my elecrician and ask him what the difference is because as you say, (now I've googled images which I didn't think to do before) they look like the same thing.

Andrew

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12:30 PM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Denise G at 04/08/2020 - 10:43
Sorry if its misconstrued - there is no dig at you at all.

Its a bit like going to a surgeon and he tells you something - you have to take on good faith the experts opinion to a large extent.

The purpose of the article and video was to help people I know who have been duped by so called qualified experts. Some turned out not to be qualified to do EICR, some were rogues, some incorrectly catergorised work.

As Paul confirmed a fuesboard thats plastic no matter where its located at worst is only ever a C3

As a landlord myself - I always strive to create a very safe environment so I can sleep at night knowing I dont have a grenfell on my hands and it sounds very much like you are the same,

Here to support best we can

Andrew

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12:32 PM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 04/08/2020 - 10:52
great advice - picking up body language is very helpful. Sometimes listening to the words used can also help if done over the phone

Andrew

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12:35 PM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by rhjoiner at 04/08/2020 - 07:24
Sorry if the statement is confusing. From 1st July 2020 when there is a tenant changeover you need to put in place an EICR and serve to the tenant.

The report is valid for 5 years so every tenant change during that period you serve a copy of that report.

Thanks for picking up my poor description in the video

UKPN

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13:26 PM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Andrew at 03/08/2020 - 20:29
Need to get away from trade bodies, there is nothing stopping you asking for the testers, qualifications. And he/she will be glad to provide. Some much incorrect info going around.

Andrew

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13:40 PM, 4th August 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by UKPN at 04/08/2020 - 13:26
I do agree with you, however the qualification is specific for doing an EICR.

Councils have rejected licences until an EICR qualified person has carried out an inspection

The purpose with the trade body is you can enter the companies details and see what they are qualified to undertake as a quick online check.

Hope that helps clarify the point of making it easy to check a qualification and avoid issues with councils

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