Landlord Services

Unlike Gas Safety certificates, there's no legal requirement for landlords to have their property or appliances tested for electrical safety. However, should a tenant be injured or killed as a result of faulty electrics (appliances or wiring), the landlord would be liable and could be fined or imprisoned. It is therefore sensible for landlords to have some kind of check or "MOT" undertaken which would a) demonstrate the safe nature of the property and b) highlight what remedial work would be required. Some insurance companies are now requesting such checks to be done before policies are renewed.

The Domenstic Electrical Installation Condition Report (DEICR) is designed to ascertain the state of the services and to enable the owner to act on the findings. It is, in effect, a global "safe" / "unsafe" report on the visible (sockets, switches, etc.) and not-visible (cables inside walls, under floors, etc.) aspects of the property as well as detailing what could become a hazard in the future. The cost of a DEICR is determined by the time to do the work, which in turn depends upon the size of the property, number of storeys, number of circuits, etc.. As a rough guide, a DEICR will cost £25 per fuse or circuit breaker (*), or from £200 + vat for a flat or from £250 + vat for a house. A fixed quotation will always be made, usually over the phone, before the work is started.

(*) When counting the the fuses / circuit breakers, don't include and RCDs (residual current device) of the Main Switch.

Guidelines are that a DEICR should be undertaken at the start of every new tenancy or at least every 5 years where an existing tenancy continues. The "start of every tenancy" is because the landlord may have no idea what changes the previous tenant may have made, to the extent that the property may subsequently present risk factors. Note, that the landlord could not mitigate his / her responsibility by claiming that he / she was unaware of any hazard that the changes had generated.

The procedure is quite simple and can be completed in a matter of hours, with the DEICR advising the landlord whether the property is safe or whether action is required. The cost of a DEICR varies with the size of the property, number of circuits, etc. so please telephone for a quote, stating the number of rooms and floors in the property, the location of the consumer unit (fuse box) and the number of fuses (i.e. circuits) in the fuse box. Please note that during the inspection, the electricity will need to be turned off for a short while at the main switch so please ensure that alarms, computers, etc. can be powered down during the test. Any trivial faults will be rectified during the test and at no additional cost. More significant faults can be resolved after a quotation is given and accepted. While the owner of the property is under no legal obligation to have any faults rectified, failure to do so may invalidate any relevant building / contents insurance, as well as cause injury or death to a tenant!

PAT (portable applicance testing) is a separate issue and is used to demonstrate whether applicances, and associated plugs, are wired safely. While PAT testing is currently not a legal requirement, many landlords avoid the issue by not providing appliances (kettles, toasters, etc.). We don't do PAT testing as it is relatively unskilled work and frankly isn't cost effective for properties with a small number of appliances. However, we can check plugs and fuses - the most common area for faults - while undertaking the DEICR. This is a cheap and simple procedure so please ask when enquiring about a DEICR.

Note - the DEICR replaced the Periodic Inspection Report in January 2012. Although the legislation gave electricians a short time to re-train, and acquire the relevant documentation, some electricians are continuing to generate PIRs which have little value as the DEICR covers areas that the PIR doesn't.