House fire due to lamp!

kcwild

Hi, I'm looking for some advice from anyone who would know or have been in similar situations etc...

Basically I rent a property and had quite a bad house fire on Saturday night from a lamp I bought on the Friday night...

The story goes I bought the lamp as I live in quiet a rough area and set it up on a timer to come on for a few hours till I got home from work, I set it to come on at 8pm (with a timer I have used many times before) luckily I had a urge to go home at 8.15pm to check the house, and found it on fire! Thankfully I caught the fire in time for it not to destroy the whole house, its mostly the bedroom, hallway and bathroom.

However when the electrician was checking the circuit board he found that one of the circuit breakers was melted along with a lot of discolouration on the copper wiring and admittedly said that it was very bad workmanship who ever installed it and checked it. He also told me that if there wasn't a fire from the lamp then there would have been a fire from the circuit board so we were lucky we found it.

I'm just wondering if anyone knows my rights in terms of my landlord?

puddy

did you get an electrical cert?

kcwild

Not that I know of, I've only lived in the property 7 months and when I moved in the letting agency told me that everything had been checked and working fine and perfect.

puddy

they didnt get you copies then?

kcwild

Well people have asked if I got any signed documentation from electricians to confirm all the electrics were checked, but I'm sure I didnt and actually assumed that the letting agency would have all that (they might but they are on holiday so dont know yet) However the electrician that checked out all the electrics today told me that my letting agency should have all the paper work from being done.

baza52

have you contacted your own insurance company?

kcwild

No because we don't have any. Myself and my partner are not really worried about the belonging that were damaged, we are actually thankful that the fire happened as its highlighted the potential for a fire with the boiler and circuit board. I mean thankfully we wasn't in the house when the lamp set on fire, however if the potential other fire started we could have been sleeping or anything like that, anything could have happened to us.

princeofpounds

There is no requirement to do an electrical inspection for either landlord or tenant.

You should contact your landlord, he should claim on his insurance, the insurance should decide whether to accept liability or pursue you for costs. Given that the fuse board malfunctioned liability probably rests with the landlord. It is worth taking photos and getting a written opinion from the electrician that saw it.

Follow up ALL conversations in writing to establish a trail.

kcwild

What do you mean by there is no requirement to do an electrical inspection? Surely before a tenant moves in the electrics need to be deemed safe etc... we only moved in to the property 7 months ago and we were the first tenants the property has had. The electrician said that connections were loose and not fitted properly etc... Can my landlord get away with being this way?

ceh209

Is the property currently uninhabitable? If so, the landlord has to provide you with suitable alternative accommodation.

poppysarah

By circuit board do you mean in the fuse box?

So what caused the fire? The lamp or the circuit?

Where did you buy the lamp from?
If it's second hand and didn't have a green pat test sticker on then it that's dodgy (I assume that all second hand electricals have to be checked by law, but am not 100% on that)
and if new then that's a huge concern too.