RLA writes to Ministry of Housing over electrical safety loophole

Reply to the comment left by Simon Williams at 29/02/2020 - 19:57
Both the NLA & RLA rolled over and let the Govt tickle their belly when MHCLG proposed 5 year Certs ONLY for the PRS !
Talk about Bias !
If electricity is dangerous, then shouldn't All rented property be subject to the same regulation. ?
Same with M.E.E.S 'E' Grade Energy Efficiency, Its only important to save the environment and have PRS tenants subject to these measures. !
PRS Landlords are playing against a stacked deck and its time we got tough with housing the Local Authorities problem tenants.

Electricity is dangerous, then tell me one thing that isn't, a peanut can kill some people who have allergy, you could be going about minding your business and a car loses control and mounts a pavement, kills or maims a few people, where do you draw the line? Should we arap tenants in cotton wool and keep them safe? unfortunately, even that is not safe, as cotton can ignite and burn and kill our tenants, best would be if we stop renting altogether, so every death then falls on Government for not legislating sale of peanuts, cigarettes, wines and alcoholic drinks, stop people driving cars as they kill thousands in England, homelessness caused directly by the very actions of our Government by introducing needless legislation causing higher rents to meet unrealistic standards, which costs a lot to implement, how many deaths do you hear of tenant? Homelessness is caused by people unable to afford higher rents, low paid jobs, endless taxes, indirect taxes, fines for minor offences such as traffic offenses, dropping litter accidentally , and unproportional fines imposed on landlords for breaching millions of housing rules, lack of investment in affordable housing, not able to invest in creating more higher paid jobs, waste of resources in NHS, employing more managers than doctors, red tape due to health & safety rules themselves causes many deaths, a scaffolding erector died whilst trying to erect a structure when one of the poles fell on him, our society is overburdened with legislations, biggest joke is trying to curb knife crime by deploying more police, how the heck will that stop those bent on killing, fining big amounts to energy companies when power fails due to act of nature, who pays in the end these big fines, we do, our electricity prices go through the roof as company after company , banks after banks are made to pay millions in fines imposed on them , they simply pass the buck to public, our Government is not acting in our best interest, people don't see that.

Reply to the comment left by Simon Williams at 29/02/2020 - 19:57
Simon, is there a common pattern emerging of the things that your electrician says need to be done to make the installations compliant with the 2018 regulations? I would find it very helpful to know what to expect although I have decided that there is little point in arranging inspections while there is so much uncertainty and conflicting advice from government about the draft regulations.

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 02/03/2020 - 01:31
Would that not mean complete rewiring a property as many properties such as mine has old colour wiring in white sheath, now to comply with you may be required to use the new colour wiring as well as the new metal cabinet to house the consumer unit??

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 02/03/2020 - 01:31the improvements will be dependant on each system, although as I understand it the New PRS legislation will require a Periodic Test, inline with the BS guidance, to be undertaken (every 5 years) to prove that the system is safe. The methodology and Cat. Of works are defined by the BS and a decent Spark should work to these.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 02/03/2020 - 12:00
Yes, there are all sorts of things that might need to be changed, that's why I am interested to know which particular features Simon's electrician has highlighted as "safe but not compliant".

The draft regulations and explanatory memorandum are far from clear and probably do not achieve the intended result; the PRS January Newsletter from MHCLG muddies the water even further as the advice it contains is in some respects in direct conflict with them.

Impossible to say, depends on your existing system. But if rewired Properly in the last 20 years shouldn’t be anything too major. not the mandatory cat. Works anyhow.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 02/03/2020 - 12:00
No.

All things being equal (i.e. that the wiring is safe) then all that is needed to be compliant in these circumstances is to apply a notice to the installation warning that wiring of more than one colour scheme exists within.

And even then this will only apply if and when any of the new colour wiring is added to a pre-existing installation consisting of the old colour.

Bonkers if you ask me as I don't see how any half competent person is ever going to be confused and need a sticker to help out.

It's a bit like all of those "No Smoking" signs that suddenly became mandatory everywhere a few years back.

What's Bonkers, is the landlord Associations cow-towing and agreeing to this with Government, where it only applies to the PRS.
Any landlord association sticking up for landlords would have said to govt, if they deemed it so important for Tenants safety, then ' ALL ' tenants, both Council and Housing Association should have 5 year certificates.

Reply to the comment left by Possession Friend at 22/05/2020 - 16:23
i left nla because it became govts mouthpiece