Electrocuted, by landlords washing machine

MrsTinks

Do not believe by law they have to be no - i appreciate it's a good few years since I was a lettings negotiator for a large and prestigious agent but no - I don't recall any legal obligation on their behalf to get certificates for each applicance in a property.
Certificates for gas I remember, but nothing like it for electrical applicances...
As for what compensation... were you unable to work as a result? Was your income affected? will you be permanently scarred? If not then move on and just get them to appologise and maybe as a goodwill check all the other appliances in the property...

N79

bernadette2105 wrote: »

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.

I some ways I agree with you and I do understand your frustration at what has happened. For what it is worth I do think that rental properties should be checked regularly (every year or two) to BS7671 but the current situation is that they only need to be checked every 10 years (normally) and even that is not compulsory (although without it a LL would struggle to justify that they had fulfilled their duty of care).

bernadette2105

The shock did not cause the electrics to fuse, which is writen in the report: the electrican has documented this as he did a full check on the washing machine with a volt checker. I am not an electrican and can only say what happen and how the sockets look, ie its a panel which runs three appliances, and no the other appliances were not 'live'

The washing machine is stated in the inventory as being in good condition and working order.

RabbitMad

so as you are the first tenant can we assume the LL was the previous occupier? Therefore one could reason that they used it for 3 years and never encountered this fault and therefore thought the property was safe.

The LA is mearly an agent for the LL and would not automatically conduct testing of all the electrical items.

N79

bernadette2105 wrote: »

"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??

Sorry, I was not very clear. I completely agree that LL have such a duty.

I meant that it should be up to a T to prove that the LL was negligent. However, in reality it is increasing it is up to the LL to prove that they were not. The impossibility of proving a negative - drilled into me from day 1.

RabbitMad

bernadette2105 wrote: »

The shock did not cause the electrics to fuse, which is writen in the report: the electrican has documented this as he did a full check on the washing machine with a volt checker. I am not an electrican and can only say what happen and how the sockets look, ie its a panel which runs three appliances, and no the other appliances were not 'live'

The washing machine is stated in the inventory as being in good condition and working order.

I am very suprised the RCD didn't trip. This would worry me a lot more than what might of happened as it suggests something is wrong with the installation.

And the inventory was correct, the washing machine was in good condition and working order, it was just wired in wrongly.

N79

bernadette2105 wrote: »

The shock did not cause the electrics to fuse, which is writen in the report: the electrican has documented this as he did a full check on the washing machine with a volt checker. I am not an electrican and can only say what happen and how the sockets look, ie its a panel which runs three appliances, and no the other appliances were not 'live'

The washing machine is stated in the inventory as being in good condition and working order.

Very odd, they should have, given the young age of the installation we can have a fairly good idea of what sort of equipment is installed. (I mean the trip switch flipping cutting the power supply - not any phsical fuzes blowing). As well as PAT testing, has the LL had an inspection to BS7671 conducted on the whole installation (obviously they will have the one conducted when the house was built). If not, I think you should probably ask for this. It will not be related to the fault in the washing machine but it should be checked.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you highlight this in writting to the LL and they fail to get such a check done within a reasonable time scale then they are rapidly heading into failing their duty of care should anything else go wrong.

bernadette2105

RabbitMad wrote: »

so as you are the first tenant can we assume the LL was the previous occupier? Therefore one could reason that they used it for 3 years and never encountered this fault and therefore thought the property was safe.

The previous owners moved out over a year ago and placed the property on the market, it was then bought by the LL. So no-one has lived in the property for the past 14months

MissMoneypenny

tbs624 wrote: »

I would contact your local Private Sector Rentals Team at your Council (nothing to do with council housing - they only deal with private lets) - they need to know about local LLs/LAs who fail in their obligations. It won't cost you anything & they can check that the LL/LA fully complies with their obligations.

I agree with this. I rented a property that I discovered had faulty electrics and although the LA knew about the problems, the ll was dragging his heels. I contacted my local council who asked me to pass a message to the LA "If we come to the house and find the electrics are faulty, we are going to go for the ll". A qualified electrician was sent immediately to grade the electrics and then spent a day fixing the electrics.

The local council will send someone to inspect the entire house if you are unhappy with any safety aspect of the house. They can then take the ll to court if needs be. They are also keeping records of the lls in the area that have been reported to them.

If I ever rent again, I will only look at house with electric safety certificates. Some lls provide them as a matter of course, others will wait until the law requires them to provide this.

Premier_2

N79 wrote:

... As well as PAT testing, has the LL had an inspection to BS7671 conducted on the whole installation (obviously they will have the one conducted when the house was built)...

The last inspection certificate I saw carried out to BS7671 for a new build recommended the installation was re-inspected within 5 years - this property is only 3 years old.