Electrocuted, by landlords washing machine

bernadette2105

I personaly feel that i have a right to be safe in a house that i have paid over £1,600.00 to move into: bond etc.
There was no checks on the electrics carried out before i moved in, and i was the the first tenant to rent this house. Following the rewiring of the said machine the electrician went round all the electrical appliances to check them and consequently placed PAT safety stickers on them.
Surely there is some kind of safe guard out there.

geri1965_2

Bernadette, as others have said someone would need to have been negligent and/or in breach of their statutory duty to enable a claim to succeed.

From the link, it doesn't appear that landlords have a statutory duty to inspect electrical appliances annually, although if they have never inspected them, a court may find them liable. The other possibility is faulty installation by Barratt or their contractors.

If your injury is simply bruising and shock, you wouldn't be entitled to a great deal in compensation, probably around £1,000 or so.

RabbitMad

shaven-monkey wrote: »

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/electrical_safety.htm
specifically

the bruising and burns constitute injury so your landlord or letting agent is liable.

I think you mean COULD BE liable rather than IS.

Without knowing whether the washing machine has been replace since the house was built we can determine that, however if it hasn't its very uinlikely that the LL would be found negligent.

As for how much I would recommend at least £10K for the pain and suffering caused, plus maybe £200K for lost of earnings*

*Assuming that you are a super model who had contracts in place that have been cancelled due to the unsightly bruise and or burn marks.

N79

bernadette2105 wrote: »

I personaly feel that i have a right to be safe in a house that i have paid over £1,600.00 to move into: bond etc.
There was no checks on the electrics carried out before i moved in, and i was the the first tenant to rent this house. Following the rewiring of the said machine the electrician went round all the electrical appliances to check them and consequently placed PAT safety stickers on them.
Surely there is some kind of safe guard out there.

There is the LL duty of care. They should reduce the risks to acceptable levels. However, electicity is dangerous and there is a risk associated with using it. If you believe the LL failed in their duty of care and was negligent then sue them (damages will be minimal unless your injuries are lasting). Otherwise you will just have to file this under the heading of "!!!! happens".

With a valid electical safety certificate your LL has done more than his legal duty.

geri1965_2

I'd just like to add that I'm a loss adjuster who deals with personal injury claims, and if I was dealing with a claim like this, I wouldn't be too comfortable that it's a claim that could be successfully defended.

MissMoneypenny

bernadette2105 wrote: »

Dear All,
am i entitled to sue the for negligence, if so how do i go about it?

Thanks
Bernadette

Have you got a house contents insurance policy and does it have legal cover? If so, contact them and they will provide you with a negligence solicitor for just the cost of your policy excess. If you haven't got that cover, then check if you have it on your ccs.

Or you could contact a no win, no fee solicitor. They seem to be doing a lot of cold calling looking for business at the moment.

RabbitMad

geri1965 wrote: »

I'd just like to add that I'm a loss adjuster who deals with personal injury claims, and if I was dealing with a claim like this, I wouldn't be too comfortable that it's a claim that could be successfully defended.

But that's when some no win no fee solicitor has taken the claim and is coming after the insurance company - the insurance company would look at the cost of defence and likely hood of success verse the amount being claimed.

In this instance without the facts its hard to say yes easy to defend or not.

I think incidents like this should highlight to LLs everywhere why an annual inspection of electric appliances would be a worthwile investment.

N79

geri1965 wrote: »

I'd just like to add that I'm a loss adjuster who deals with personal injury claims, and if I was dealing with a claim like this, I wouldn't be too comfortable that it's a claim that could be successfully defended.

Certainly for a company defending it would cost more than the payout so I suspect that they will settle. However, it is possible to defend actions like these provided the LL has acted reasonably. Of course, if should not be up to the LL to defend anything but we all know that the legal system is now somewhat skewed against us. LLs normally have to defend their actions when Ts die - a horrible situation for everyone to be in.

As a minimum if the LL can show:
a current installation certicate showing testing to BS7671, some sort of annual inspection plus evidence of remedial action on all faults / shortcoming identified then I think the LL would have a reasonable chance.

Since the house is only 3 years old I would have thought that it would have had a full REBO fuze box. I am surprised that the OP suffered burns - the whole point of these boxes is that they trip within a few ms before damage is done (as an aside, no one has every been killed by an electric shock from the mains in a domestic property with REBO trips) this could suggest that the installation may be faulty.

bernadette2105

I would of thought or at least hoped that when a property is rented out for the first time all appliances would be checked that not only they were in working order so that they can be included in the rental of the property but most definately that they are safe.

The LA is a large company and i would of thought they should check these things before allowing tenents to move in, after all they charge the LL for them.

bernadette2105

"should not be up to the LL to defend anything but we all know that the legal system is now somewhat skewed against us."

Surely LL have a duty to make sure the property is safe??