Whether you are a landlord renting out your property privately or through an agency, you’ll need to ensure that you comply with the law on all health and safety regulations. To ensure that you’re up to date, we’ve compiled a list of health and safety considerations that you need to keep in mind whilst letting out your property to make sure that it is safe to live in.
Electrical Safety
One of the biggest areas that landlords often fail to comply with is ensuring that their property has securely fitted electrics that are not going to be the cause of a fire, or cause electrocution to tenants as they plug a device into the plug socket. If you supply electrical equipment, such as a lamp or kettle, you need to get these items professionally checked to see whether their electrical components are safe to use.
As a landlord, you also have the responsibility to ensure that all plug sockets, light switches, and other electrical outlets have been fitted properly, are in good condition and are safe to use. When renting a property, you’ll need an EICR every five years which will involve an inspection of the building to check that the electrical fittings are secure. Trade Facilities Services offers Electrical Installation Condition checks (EICR) and reports, giving you either a satisfactory or unsatisfactory result. Their electricians are on hand to repair any of the unsatisfactory areas in the house, to ensure that it meets satisfactory and safe standards.
Gas Safety
Like electrical safety, landlords need to ensure that any equipment that they provide in the property that uses gas has been checked professionally to ensure that it is safe to use. For example, a gas-range cooker and oven. These checks should occur every 12 months by a gas engineer who will leave a certificate at the end to prove that the equipment is safe to use. The gas engineer should also check the gas pipes to make sure that they securely contain the gas and are not leaking. All tenants living in the property need to be shown and made aware of how to turn the gas on or off, in case of emergencies and when the property is going to be left vacant for some time. Tenants should also receive a copy of the up-to-date gas report from the landlord, within 48 hours of moving into the property.
Fire Safety
In rental properties, the landlord is responsible for installing a smoke alarm on every story of the house, for example one downstairs and one upstairs. There needs to be an additional smoke alarm in every room that has a fuel burning appliance, like a fire or a cooker. If the rental property is a HMO (House in Multiple Occupation), landlords should provide a fire extinguisher, a fire alarm and a fire blanket on each floor of the house. In a furnished rental property, any furniture that you provide as a landlord needs to be fire resistant and meet the required safety regulations. Finally, if there is no clear escape route or fire exit due to the house layout, you may be required to install a fire safety door.
Hopefully you will have already covered these three areas of safety in your property and ensured that the correct adjustments or checks have been made. If you are unsure whether your property complies with one or two aspects of the health and safety requirements, you should check this immediately and take action as required. If not, you could be facing a fine, a lawsuit, or even being held responsible for the harm of the tenants living in your property.
