Landlord responsibilities for fire and electrical safety - Discounted certificate prices available
We speak to a lot of landlords who aren’t entirely sure of their legal responsibilities when it comes to ensuring their property is safe in terms of its fire detection and electrical installations.
Electrical installations
Every landlord has a direct, legal responsibility to ensure that their property’s electrical installations are safe, as defined by The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994. Although there is no legal requirement for an Electrical Safety Certificate to be produced for non-HMO properties, it is the easiest way of ensuring the installation is safe, giving you extra peace of mind.
We’re able to offer our landlords a discounted rate of £65 for flats and £75 for houses for Electrical Safety Certificates, which are valid for three years*. The certificates are produced by an NICEIC-registered company with a vast amount of experience in the industry.
Fire detection systems
‘Best practice’ fire safety guidelines are set out in the BS5839 standards and suggest that fire detection systems are inspected on an annual basis. Again, there is normally no legal requirement to have these certificates produced for non-HMO properties, but they can give you the assurance that the system will work in the case of emergency. We’re able to offer our landlords a heavily-discounted rate of £25 for Fire Safety Certificates, which are valid for 1 year.
What about HMO properties?
Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) always require a valid Electrical Safety Certificate and Fire Safety Certificate. If the HMO requires a licence, these certificates must be submitted to Cardiff Council as part of the application process and it is the licence holder’s legal obligation to arrange for these certificates to be renewed upon expiry.
What can CPS Homes do?
As Cardiff’s largest manager of private rented homes, we’re able to offer significantly reduced certificate prices due to our buying power with local contractors. In short, we’re able to:
- Instruct Electrical Safety Certificates at £65 for flats or £75 for houses, lasting 3 years;
- Instruct Fire Safety Certificates for £25, lasting 1 year;
- Automatically renew certificates when they’re due to expire;
- Liaise with both tenant and contractor to ensure access for the certificate to be produced;
- Keep electronic and hard copies of each certificate;
- Arrange quick and cost-effective remedial work, if required;
- Provide the certificates to Cardiff Council and tenants, if and when necessary.
If you’d like to know more about the property management service we offer, or if you’d like to learn more about your legal responsibility, please call us today on 02920 668585 or email lydia.devine@cpshomes.co.uk.
*Electricians are legally required to stipulate that the installation should be checked whenever there is a change of tenancy, but we have confirmed with Cardiff Council that a visual check is sufficient in this instance, meaning landlords don’t need to instruct a new certificate every time there is a change in tenant. We’re able to offer these visual checks at a cost of just £25.
