Electrician's Tips For Landlords - Keeping Your Tenants Safe

How can you keep your tenants safe all year long as a responsible landlord? We’re going to be looking at how you can safeguard your tenants safety and comply with the law. If you have any questions about what we talk about in this post you can always give us a call. We’re a friendly team and always here to help. 

The Importance of Ensuring Tenant Safety

The safety and security of your tenants is essential, not just to keep them out of harms way, but also to protect yourself from prosecution. It isn’t simply a case of handing over the keys to your tenants and forgetting about them. It includes a responsibility to their safety and wellbeing throughout their tenancy, making sure that the home you’ve supplied to them isn’t full of hidden dangers. At the beginning of the tenancy why not give your tenant not just the contract, but a list of things you’ve carried out to ensure their electrical safety. If you’ve replaced the fuseboards, carried out EICR & PAT testing and installed alarms including smoke and carbon monoxide. Check out the latest legal and industry regulations in Scotland if you’re unsure of what you’re responsible for. 

EICR & PAT Testing

EICR is an Electrical Installation Condition Report which should be carried out by a qualified and trained electrical engineer and carried out prior to move in. This is a thorough report on all electrical installations to ensure that everything is in working order, that’s lights, wiring, switches and fuse boxes. Anything they report faulty you must either repair or replace.

PAT Testing is the testing of all electrical appliances you supply your tenant with. That could be a cooker, a fridge, a washing machine, anything that you have available to use for your tenants. Again, a qualified electrical engineer should carry out all PAT Testing and anything that’s reported faulty you will have to repair or replace.

Fuse Board Replacements

These are essential to make your electrical installations work smoothly and without issue. If you find they’re giving you problems, it could be time to have them replaced. Any fuse board should have an RCD and this is simply a way of cutting electrical power when there’s a power surge so you don’t get an electric shock. Most modern homes have a fuse board with an RCD, older homes may not. 

Smoke Alarms

These are important in detecting smoke and giving residents enough time to leave the building if a fire has started. It can also give tenants a chance to stop something before it becomes more serious. Smoke alarms save lives, the statistics say so and in order to protect your tenants you’ll need make sure you have them installed. Your electrician will be able to tell you how many you will need in each property. 

Carbon Monoxide Alarms

These are also important if you have gas installed on the property. Carbon monoxide poisoning can result in death, it’s deadly and because there’s no smell, you could easily be poisoned before you were aware of what’s happening. Make sure you have these alarms installed in your rented property.

VC Electrical - Experienced Electricians in Edinburgh

If you’re looking for an experienced electrician in Edinburgh look no further than VC Electrical. Don’t place your tenants in danger and your own livelihood at risk, contact us now to book some electrical checks on your properties.