Government consultation on electrical safety requirements in the private rented sector
The Housing and Planning Act 2016 provides for electricity safety standards to be set in secondary legislation if necessary. The Consultation (click to see) is on the Private Rented Sector Electrical Safety Working Group’s recommendations which include the following:
• Landlords should be required by law to arrange electrical safety checks, at least every five years.
• An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) should be issued to landlords, to confirm that the checks have been carried out and any remedial work completed satisfactorily.
• A copy of the EICR should be provided to tenants at the beginning of their tenancies and made available to the local authority on request.
• A separate electrical testing competent person scheme should be set up for the PRS.
The Consultation also seeks views on enforcement, including the penalties and sanctions for non-compliance by landlords. It considers whether to extend the list of prescribed information that must be provided to a tenant at the beginning of a tenancy (bearing in mind that under the Deregulation Act 2015, failure to provide prescribed information will prevent a landlord from serving a section 21 termination notice).