Introduction
It looks like 2020 will be a pretty painful year for landlords in Enfield. Like other landlords else we’ve felt the full impact of Section 24, you may have had to take a mortgage holiday or hit your savings if the lockdown and COVID 19 made things financially difficult for your tenant, you know that in September the Council are bringing in Additional Licensing across the borough and they’re still considering Selective Licensing, but there can’t be anything else can there……..?
Well yes, I’m afraid there can. A long, long time ago there were murmurings about making electrical inspections mandatory. They’re already mandatory for HMO’s and they’ve always been best practise in single let properties but now they’re going to be mandatory for these too.
Live-in landlords with lodgers who share facilities such as toilet, bathroom kitchen, are exempt from the requirement.
The implementation was delayed by Brexit and then again by the election but now it’s going ahead.
How long do I have?
Two key dates are:
– July 1st 2020 – All new tenancies, all renewed tenancies and any tenancies that become statutory periodic* from this date onwards must have be inspected and tested and a report given to the tenant before the tenancy starts.
– April 1st 2021 – All existing tenancies including contractual periodic* must have been inspected and tested and report given to tenants by this date.
*How do you know if your tenancy will become statutory or contractual periodic after the fixed term? A contractual periodic tenancy specifically allows for time after the fixed term has ended. For example our tenancy agreements state –
‘The Term shall be from and including <date> to and including <date> and then the tenancy continues as a monthly contractual periodic until ended following either party giving notice.’
What do I do next?
If you have an empty property then scheduling this work with a qualified electrician is relatively simple however if you have a tenant in situ and they’re due to renew then, in light of COVID 19, it’s worth talking to them sooner rather than later so they know it’s coming. Electrical inspections are much more intrusive than gas safety checks because while most homes have just one of two gas appliances, they’ll have numerous electrical outlets (light switches, plug sockets etc) in every room!
What happens after the test?
If all goes well with the inspection then you’ll receive a report to keep and to give to your tenant. If there are faults found then you will need to address them within 28 days or sooner for urgent works. You’ll also need to send your local authority a copy of the failed report and confirmation from an electrician that remedial works have been carried out within 28 days.
We’re waiting for further full details of the requirements as there are some more technical points which need clarifying and then we will update all our landlords and tenants.
