Certificates & safety
What are the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations?
The electrical safety standards regulations require landlords in England to have the fixed installation inspected and tested at defined intervals, to give reports to tenants, and to carry out remedial work within a set period.
They turned electrical inspection from good practice into an obligation with dates attached, which is why so many portfolios had to begin a testing programme from nothing.
The remedial duty is the part with teeth. An unsatisfactory report starts a clock, and evidence of completed work has to go to the tenant and, on request, to the local authority.
Local authorities can require remedial action and can arrange work themselves and recover the cost, in addition to financial penalties.
What goes wrong in practice
- An unsatisfactory report filed as though a report were the compliance.
- Remedial work done with no written confirmation supplied to the tenant.
- Reports not given to new tenants at the start of a tenancy.