Skip to main content

More Regulation for Landlords


New electrical safety regulations were presented before Parliament last month.

The move by the Government will strengthen electrical safety practices and bring them into line with those already well established within gas safety regulations in private residential tenancies.

The regulations, if implemented, will only affect private residential tenancies – first, new tenancies from July 1 this year, and those tenancies already in existence from April 1, 2021.
The proposal will move to ensure all electrical wiring and fixed electrical installations are signed off and reported by a qualified electrician.

This report will be required to be shown at the outset of every new tenancy and renewed at least every five years, if not earlier, dependent on any electrics or fixed electrical installations that are altered or changed by the landlord. If the report highlights any issues, the landlord will be required to remedy the issue within 28 days or sooner dependent on the recommendation within the report.

If the landlord does not comply with the recommendations made in the report, and this is notified to the local authority, the council has the power to issue a potential fine of up to £30,000. The council will also be granted the power to carry out the recommended works and seek to impose the costs of such actions on to the landlord along with the potential fine of up to £30,000. The most likely route would be that the local authority will look to serve a further notice of 28 days for the landlord to carry out the specified works, before looking to impose further actions and potential fines.

Landlords and their agents will need to ensure their properties are compliant with the regulation for any new tenancy, and it is possible we may see more properties coming on to the market for sale if landlords are unable or unwilling to comply with the regulations.

The regulations seek to ensure that the policing is self-compliant, with landlords and letting agents unable to market a property without the appropriate electrical report.

Is this fair? Yes, as safety is key. While the policy is aimed at those worst offending landlords who may undertake illegal electrical works, all landlords must now pick up the mantle and ensure their properties are safe.

Extracted from Property Industry Eye 19 February 2020


We will shortly be writing to all our landlord clients suggesting they get ahead of the regulations and organise testing and possibly repair now before the regulations create a log-jam with electricians unable to deal with the volume of work to comply in time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's July 2022!

 How many bloggers find that it's only something they do when they have found some time to fill, for whatever reason? I admit that there are companies and individuals who will write something for me on a regular basis, but my feeling is that it needs to be authentic and my 'voice'. When I get back to my keyboard to do this it makes me worry that the market may be changing and we'll need to start adapting again to new circumstances, new problems and constraints. The dreaded COVID has not gone away, just adapted itself. My wife Janet managed to pick it up from her 93 year old father after spending several hours with him coughing and sneezing on the way back from a trip to Wales. Her first time contracting it since the pandemic began and it's been 4 days now since she tested positive. My results are negative. I told my colleagues that's because I'm a 64 year old Teflon coated estate agent! But then, who knows when a variant particularly targeted at the property
Post a Comment
Read more
Interest rates and inflation First of all, let’s get some basics together. Reproduced below is The Times ‘explainer’ with my numbering of reasons and highlighting of the players involved: The Bank of England has warned that it could peak at 13% this year when the energy price cap goes up again. But what is pushing up prices? Energy bills are by far one of the biggest contributors. (1) Gas prices rocketed as economies around the world reopened after the coronavirus lockdowns. (2) The war in Ukraine has exacerbated the problem. In April, average gas and electricity prices jumped by 53.5% and 95.5% respectively compared with a year ago. (3) Average energy bills are now forecast to hit £3,850 by January 2023 after Russia cut gas supplies further. Fuel remains at some of the highest levels seen on record, although pump prices are falling, slowly . Average petrol prices were 182.69p a litre in July . In early June you could expect to pay 186.59p. In May you could expect to pay 160.31p
Post a Comment
Read more

House builders discuss 95% mortgages with lenders

So the house builders and the lenders have had a meeting to discuss how they can create 95% mortgages. Basically a good thing, as you would imagine most estate agents would say. But what proportion of the housing Market is represented by new homes sales to first time buyers? Also any first time buyer who purchases a new home is then a cost to the second hand Market of who knows how many sales! If I think back 30 years my wife and I as first time buyers were providing a deposit of 10%. To do this we sold her car, saved up by not going out as much and generally committed ourselves to the task of buying our first home together. Ah, you might say, but house prices were so much cheaper then. True but my salary was just under £2,000 per annum with the prospect of perhaps another £1,000 in commission from selling at lease 6 houses per month personally. The first 4 didn't count towards commission but were to cover my costs to my employer! I personally don't think 95% mortgages are
3 comments
Read more