If you are a Landlord of furnished, part furnished or even provide electrical appliances for your tenants, then you have a duty of care to your tenants to ensure all portable appliances are safe for use.
Landlords and property management companies in control of HMOs. Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMO). House in multiple occupation: – a property, rented to tenants.
Unfortunately in today’s age of “Where there`s blame there`s a claim” many Public Liability Insurers will insist you produce evidence that your PAT Testing is ongoing. You will most likely be asked to produce detailed reports of the appliance(s) within your rental property. This extends to demonstration of due diligence towards electrical safety.
If an insurance claim is made in regards to any electrical incident involving Portable Appliances, without the appropriate professional PATs report there could be a potential for insurance companies to decline any claim made.
Information for Landlords & Holiday Let Owners
Landlords and Holiday Let Owners do have a duty of care to ensure all electrical equipment supplied, either new or second hand are safe for use by tenants / holiday makers.
This derives from two primary Acts of Parliament that impose a statutory duty on landlords in terms of the safety of electrical equipment.
The Consumer Protection Act affects all persons who let property in the course of their business as it defines them as “Suppliers”, meaning they are supplying goods to the tenant / holiday maker. Additionally there are several items of secondary legislation covered by the Consumer Protection Act which are directly relevant to the supply and use of electrical goods.
- The Low Voltage Electrical Equipment Regulations 1989
- The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1997
- The General Product Safety Regulations 1994
- The Plugs and Sockets (Safety) regulations 1994
The Consumer Protection Act provides a defence of due diligence, i.e. a Landlord can defend a contravention of the act if he / she can demonstrate that he / she took reasonable steps to avoid committing and offence.
The aforementioned is why a continuous service of PAT Testing is essential.