Everyone deserves to live in a safe place. There are a lot of hazards in the commercial and residential buildings and they need to be taken care of. A lot of injuries happen because the landlords ignore the safety checks that they need to take care of.
The electrical accidents are responsible for a lot of injuries and property damages. To avoid them there are certain safety regulations that the landlords are required to abide by. These regulations are designed to ensure that people can live or work in a building without worrying about accidents or injuries.
It is the landlord’s responsibility to get an electrical safety certificate so that all the essential safety obligations are fulfilled.
Ensuring Electrical Safety of the Building:
Here are some legal requirements that the landlords have to fulfill for electrical safety.
- Making sure that the entire electrical system of the property is safe and properly functioning. Anything that is electricity related in the house should be checked including switches, sockets, fittings, etc. should be tested for safety.
- All the electrical appliances and the items in the property should be safe to use. All the appliances and item no matter how small needs to be checked for safe usage so the belongings and the life of the tenants are not put in danger.
These are just an overview of the safety measures that the landlords have to take to ensure the safety of the tenants.
The 2018 Safety Measures:
The safety of the tenants is a huge concern and that is why additional recommendations have been made to enhance and improve the protection of the tenants. The new recommended safety measures are made with a hope that they will help in reducing the risk of electrical fires, electric shocks and other injuries related to electricity.
The new possible aspects of electrical safety that tenants need to know are as follows:
- It should be mandatory for all the private rented properties to get the electrical installation checks every five years.
- The electrical safety certificates should make sure that installation checks are done along with essential repair work. The repair work should be provided to the landlord as well as the tenant and it should be offered at the beginning of the tenancy. The certificates should be readily available so they can be produced on request of the local authorities without any delay.
- For the private rented sector, there should be an electrical testing competent person’s scheme. The scheme will ensure that all the electrical safety checks are carried out by trained and skilled professionals. The scheme is different from the buildings regulation competent person that already exists.
- The testing of the landlord supplied appliances along with visual inspection of the electrical appliances by the landlords should be promoted as a good and responsible practice.
The importance of landlords fulfilling the electrical safety of the building cannot be stressed enough. It is not legally required to go above and beyond the general requirements to make the property safe from electrical hazards but there are a lot of additional safety measures landlords can take to keep the property and people in it safe.