MHCLG Consultation on Electrical Safety in the Private Rented Sector

16 March 2018

To:  PRSElectricalConsultation@communities.gsi.gov.uk

PRS Electrical Safety Consultation
Private Rented Sector Division
MHCLG
3rd Floor, Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

Dear Sirs

MHCLG Consultation on Electrical Safety in the Private Rented Sector

This response to your consultation is on behalf of The Federation of Private Residents’ Associations, which as far as we know, is the only national body that represents the voice of leaseholders in England and Wales.

We have over 500 member associations representing tens of thousands of individual leaseholders.

We have drafted this response on the basis of our regular daily contact with our members who inform us of the problems they encounter in the leasehold sector and we have analysed those contacts so that we understand and can convey to you the problems faced from a leaseholders’ perspective.

We have a committee of over 30 volunteers and this response has been drafted using their expertise in addition.

When drafting the rules careful consideration needs to be given to leasehold properties particularly where they may be matters that affect other flats in a block and where there are lease requirements and permissions.

We would welcome the opportunity to answer any other questions and help communicate the final decisions to leaseholders.

 

Bob Smytherman – FPRA Voluntary Chairman

 

 

Question 2
Other interested party (please specify) – Body representing leaseholders comprising Residents’ Associations, Flat Management Companies, Residents’ Management Companies, Right to Manage Companies, Commonhold Associations and similar groups.

Question 3
Yes
The Working Group has recommended that landlords should be required by law to arrange safety checks of the electrical installation in private rented sector residential properties. Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details.

Question 4
The Working Group has recommended that mandatory electrical installation checks should take place at least every five years. Do you agree with the recommendation?
Yes, checks should be at least every five years

Question 5
Yes
The Working Group has recommended that that a report should be issued to the landlord which confirms that an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) has been completed along with confirmation that any remedial work necessary has been undertaken satisfactorily. Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details.

Question 6
Yes
The Working Group has recommended that a copy of the report outlined in question 5 should be issued to the tenant at the beginning of the tenancy. Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details.

Question 7
Yes
The Working Group has recommended that a copy of the report outlined in question 5 should be made available to local authorities on request. Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details.

Question  8
Yes The Working Group recommended that legislative requirements should be phased in, beginning with new tenancies, followed by all existing tenancies. Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details

Question 9
Yes The Working Group has recommended that a private rented sector electrical testing competent person scheme should be set up which would be separate from existing Building Regulations competent person schemes. Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details.

Question 10
Yes and answer Do you agree that the best approach to recognising competent and qualified persons would be to introduce a scheme under ISO/IEC 17024, which would allow one or more UKAS accredited scheme operators to certify the competence of individual electrical inspectors and testers? If no, please provide details.
We are concerned however, that there may be confusion where there are qualified electricians under existing schemes who are not recognised as competent for this purpose and visa versa.

Question 11
Yes The Working Group has recommended that visual checks of the safety of the electrical installation by landlords at a change in tenancy should be encouraged as good practice and set out in guidance? Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details.

Question 12
Yes The Working Group has recommended that landlord supplied electrical appliance testing and visual checks of electrical appliances by landlords at a change of tenancy should be encouraged as good practice and set out in guidance. Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details.

Question 13
Yes The Working Group has recommended that the installation of residual current devices (RCDs) by landlords should be encouraged as good practice and set out in guidance. Do you agree with the recommendation? If no, please provide details.

Question 14
Yes  Should any regulations introduced be enforced by local housing authorities? If no, please provide details?

Question 15
Select 1 or more

Do you think that the penalty for non-compliance of any regulations introduced should be:
 Remedial notice (eg. where no check has taken place)
 Improvement notice (eg. where faults are not rectified)
 A civil penalty of up to £5,000

Question 16
Yes

Question 17
Yes
Should landlords be restricted from evicting tenants using a Section 21 notice if they have not given the tenant a copy of electrical installation safety documentation? Please provide details

There are many and varied reasons for issuing a Section 21 notice; although we don’t necessarily support the notion that the landlord should be restricted from using such a notice because tenants have not been given a copy of electrical installation safety documentation, preferring instead that the landlord should be subject to specific penalties for non-compliance, it is noted that such a restriction does apply in cases where the landlord has failed to provide a copy of the gas safety inspection report, a copy of the EPC and a copy of the government’s ‘How to Rent’ guide. With such a precedent being set, therefore, it would seem logical to extend such a restriction to non provision of the EICR.

Question 18
Yes/No/Don’t know
Do you consider that any of the Working Group recommendations would impact on people who share a protected characteristic, as defined under the Equalities Act 2010, differently from people who do not share it? If yes, please provide details.

Question 19 (optional)
Yes+Answer
Do you have any other comments that have not been captured elsewhere in this consultation? If yes, please provide details.

Our concern (as it is with Gas Safety Installation & Use Regulations (GSIUR)) is that the proposal is being limited to tenanted properties.  Many tenancies are in blocks of flats where buildings are being ‘shared’ with other residents and where the potential for fire, resulting from an unsafe electrical installation in one flat, could impact significantly on the safety of others in the block. Although we support this proposal we believe that unless owner-occupiers of flats are similarly required to have EICRs carried out it places residents in blocks of flats at risk. Landlords / freeholders of blocks of flats or those managing blocks are encouraged to have EICRs carried out every five years in respect of communal areas; this proposal would lead to the landlords of tenanted flats being required to have EICRs carried out every five years; the glaring gap, so far as blocks of flats are concerned, is that owner-occupied flats have no obligation to carry out EICRs thus placing the block at risk.