An unsatisfactory report is not a disaster, but it does start a deadline. This year we carried out a five-year landlord inspection in Bruton, then cleared every coded item on it, from a burnt-out immersion element to unsupported cabling in the loft. Here is how that process works, and the paperwork you end up holding.
The report on this rented property listed several items needing action:
Every coded item was cleared, the circuits involved were re-tested and the certification was updated. A later return visit added loft lighting at the same property.
The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 set out the routine and the deadlines:
The last two are where landlords slip. The report lists the work; getting it booked and sending the confirmation is down to you. The confirmation is yours to send, and the updated certification we supply is the evidence behind it.
Every let is priced individually. The inspection depends on the size of the installation and the number of circuits, the alarms on the layout of the property, and listed or heritage buildings need a walk-round first. If the report calls for remedial work or a new RCBO consumer unit, each coded item is priced after the inspection. You get a fixed written quote before any work starts.
An FI is the one to watch. It means something could not be fully assessed on the day, for example a circuit whose readings do not add up. It still counts against the 28 days, so it needs investigating promptly rather than being left for the next report.
Bruton's old core has medieval and Tudor cottages, with Georgian townhouses, Victorian terraces and converted mills and barns around them. Rented homes in that kind of stock share some habits. Lofts and roof spaces collect decades of cabling from different jobs, much of it never clipped. Immersion heaters are still common, and their elements and switches deserve a look at every inspection. Outside lights fixed high on stone walls have often been added with no way of isolating them locally.
The alarms need the same attention. The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, as amended in 2022, require a smoke alarm on every storey with a room used wholly or partly as living accommodation, bathrooms and toilets included, and a CO alarm in any living accommodation room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker. Alarms must be checked working on the day a new tenancy starts and repaired or replaced when a tenant reports a fault. We fit mains interlinked alarms with sealed back-up batteries; the law does not demand mains, but they are far harder for a tenant to disable.
For the inspection itself see our Bruton EICR page, and for older buildings, the heritage rewires page for Bruton.
Two more jobs close to the town, anonymised.
Leave your details and a line about the job. We will ring you back to talk it through and arrange a survey or a written price.
It means a piece of equipment, such as an outside or loft floodlight, has no switch or isolator near it to cut the supply for safe maintenance. Someone changing a lamp or working on the fitting would have to go back to the consumer unit and hope they picked the right circuit. The fix is normally a suitable isolator fitted close to it.
Yes. C3 means improvement recommended, and C3 items alone do not make a report unsatisfactory or start the 28-day duty. Many landlords group them with the next empty period between tenants or the next remedial visit, which saves a separate trip and disturbs the tenant less.
No. Any competent electrician can carry out the remedials, and whoever does them should give you a certificate for the work. Using the firm that did the inspection is usually simpler, because the price is already itemised against the codes and the re-test closes off the same report.
An element that has failed and overheated can damage the wiring and terminals at the top of the cylinder, which is why it was coded C1, danger present. The element and any heat-damaged parts are replaced, the connections checked, and the circuit re-tested before it goes back into use.
Under the 2020 regulations, written confirmation that remedial work is complete must go to the tenant and the local housing authority within 28 days of completion. So where remedials were required, the council receives confirmation as well as the tenant. Keep a copy with the report and a note of the original inspection date.
Priced by the job, not by the hour. A written, fixed price after a survey, NAPIT certification on every notifiable job.
07889 334849