There are two main Acts of Parliament that impose a statutory duty on landlords with respect to the safety of electrical equipment:
1. The Consumer Protection Act 1987
2. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
The Consumer Protection Act affects all persons who let property in the course of their business because it defines them as “suppliers”, i.e. they are supplying goods to the tenant. There are several items of secondary legislation under the umbrella of the Consumer protection Act which are directly relevant to the supply of electrical goods, including:
1. The Low Voltage Electrical Equipment Regulations 1989
2. The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994
3. The General Product Safety Regulations 1994
4. The Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994
In essence, these regulations impose a duty on landlords to ensure that all electrical equipment supplied by them is safe for use by the tenant. The Consumer Protection Act provides a defence of ‘due diligence’, i.e. a landlord can defend a contravention of the Act if he can demonstrate that he took reasonable steps to avoid committing the offence.
In summary, a landlord has duties both as a ‘supplier of goods’ and as the ‘person responsible’ for an electrical installation. As a ‘supplier of goods’ he must ensure that goods are checked before the tenant takes them over and as a ‘person responsible’ he must ensure an adequate system of maintenance
