The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020

Inspection and testing is now legally required for all new tenancies, from April 2021 it is further required in all existing private tenanted properties in England.

The Government have set out a requirement in the legislation for a "report" to be obtained from a "qualified" person, The report type is not specified in the Law.

The electrical industry report is known as an EICR, "Electrical Installation Condition Report",  Formally called a Periodic Inspection Report (PIR).

This is an official documented procedure of checking an existing installation against the current requirements of "BS7671: The requirements for electrical installations".

If inspection of an installation is requested or required then on completion, an Electrical installation condition report (EICR) will be issued detailing any departures from the current version of BS7671 this form cannot be used for a new or an addition to an existing installation. Note, An EICR should contain any recommendations for improvement based on current edition of BS7671 and any departures from BS7671.

The law as it stands does not require compliance with the current version (Amendment 1) of the regulations, It specifies it must meet the un amended version of the 18th edition wiring regulations.

In the procedure for carrying out EICR's, older installations are not required to meet the latest standards, they must be in a satisfactory condition often referred to as, "safe for continued use"

An EICR is based entirely on the current standard. Whilst an EICR on domestic installations has not previously been a legal requirement, it has always been a legal requirement of the housing act that an installation be "safe for continued use".

The current legal requirement is that a privately rented property now requires an inspection at least every 5 years, the requirement for change of occupancy remains the same in the electrical regulations.

We provide Electrical Inspections in accordance with the latest Regulations, whilst we do include the standard forms we also include a detailed report in a clear understandable format.

As a landlord your legal duties within these regulations are that you:

i) Obtain a report on your installation at least every 5 years

ii) Action any defects within 28 days of receiving that report

iii) Supply that report to your tenant, agent if you have one and the local authority if requested

iv) Use a "qualified" person

The last of those requirements is the most difficult to achieve, whilst at Edwards all our engineers are registered and fully qualified to carry out condition reporting, it is sadly the case that a company being a member of a scheme such as Napit, Stroma, Elecsa or the Niceic does not indicate that the person doing the actual report is indeed qualified.

The system is such that, a company may have many employees with just one qualified person, clearly, under this new law, for a landlord this is a concern, the obligation to ensure the person carrying out such inspection is indeed qualified falls to the landlord themselves.

Call us today on 0208 099 2010 to book your Landlords Electrical installation condition report.

Changes to the Requirements for Electrical Installations

The Regulations concerning electrical installations within the UK have been amended once again, they are titled " BS7671:2018 18th Edition of the IET Wiring Regulations (Amendment 1)." it is now finalised for print and was issued on the 1st of February 2020, they are fully in force as of the 1st July 2020

Installations designed prior to publication may still be installed to the previous regulations, Installations designed after February 2020 may be designed to either but for obvious reasons the recommendation is to design and install to the latest edition.

Some of the main changes within the 18th edition include the following.

i) Requirement to consider the installation of an AFDD (Arc Fault Detection Device) on each final circuit, in laymen terms an AFDD is a device that can detect a break or split inside a cable and safely isolate the affected circuit before it causes a fire.

ii) A requirement to ensure all cable containment and supports can withstand the effects of fire without causing cables to fall from their supports, this has been extended from escape routes only in amendment 3 of the 17th edition to cover all location and cabled services, not just mains wiring.

iii) RCD protection has been extended to all circuits and socket outlets up to 63A, previously it was up to 32 A, there is a risk assessment option where a client can issue such paperwork to contractors where in certain circumstances the provision of RCD's can be omitted.

There are many more changes contained within the latest regulations, contact us today, we can arrange a comprehensive inspection of your electrical infrastructure and advise where you may make improvements and savings in energy efficiency.

All of our electricians and engineers are fully conversant with the requirements for electrical installations and regularly attend continued professional development training, we pride ourselves on providing an outstanding service and technical knowledge to all our customers and clients no matter what their size.

Amendment 1 is primarily concerned with section 722 and electric vehicle charging.