What safety checks are landlords required to complete by Law
Becoming a landlord is one of the most lucrative decisions one can make. So long as you have the funds to purchase the house, it is a relatively straightforward process which is why there are roughly 2.65 million landlords in the UK alone.
The UK currently has around 28 million houses and many of them will be rented out privately by landlords. Whilst the landlord will be quite uninvolved throughout a tenancy – unless there are maintenance issues – they do have a duty to carry out safety checks.
This article will aim to inform and educate you on what safety checks are required to be completed by law.
- Electrical safety
Many landlords will furnish their properties with basic items such as sofas, beds and electrical items. Electrical items bear a lot of risks like fires or minor explosions if they’re faulty.
For this reason, they must be PAT tested using appropriate equipment, find more information on testing equipment here. A PAT test is a routine inspection of electrical appliances. It determines if they are safe to use and landlords should do this every year.
The PAT test will involve a visual inspection as well as an in-depth check of the electrical make-up of the item.
- Fire safety
Fires threaten every building in the world. The home is no expiation of that. Whether it’s a fire caused by cooking, fire spreading from a fireplace or electrical fires, the tenants should be safe from any danger.
For this reason, fire safety checks should be put in place. This means the landlord should test smoke and fire alarms. In the event of a fire, these will then signal to inform the family to get to safety.
Some other measures that can be put in place for further safety include putting a fire extinguisher on every level of the home or placing a fire blanket in a room where fires may be likely to occur e.g. the kitchen.
- Gas safety
Whilst the previous checks can be done by the landlord, this requires them to hire a registered heating engineer. They will ensure that your gas-run appliances are working properly.
They will check the ventilation around the property to ensure that harmful gases are escaping the home instead of spreading into the living areas. These checks should take around an hour to complete so shouldn’t take too much time out of the landlord’s day.
Landlords must take these steps or risk the lives of their tenants as well as their reputation. If you don’t do these checks and something does go wrong then you will be negligent and could face prosecution.
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What safety checks are landlords required to complete by Law