IS THIS LEGAL?Only 1 electric socket in a room

maytaurus

Thanks for all your replies :A
The socket is only a single one,she is using a good Extension cable
so hopefully all will be ok :idea:
By the way the landlord isn't interested in doing any work on the property.
She has completely re-decorated the whole house,
had laminate flooring throughout the downstairs, tiled the bathroom floor to ceiling and fitted a new tv aerial
so you'd think he could stretch to an electric socket!! :rotfl:
On the same subject we are just putting up our xmas lights and plugging them all in is a nightmare !! :rotfl:
Any thoughts :question: or funny stories about this :question:
:xmassign: to you all :xmastree:

seven-day-weekend

When we had a two-bedroom council flat in the early 70s, there were only three sockets in the whole place!!

But that was over thirty years ago and we did not have many appliances.

Now my UK house has six in the living room, four in the dining room, six in the kitchen, four in two of the bedrooms, EIGHT in my son's bedroom (he has a lot of stuff!), four in the workshop and two in the cellar.

34 altogether! :eek:

I sympathise with your friend having to manage with so few!

wherediditallgo

The bit I don't get is why they didn't check the number of sockets before moving in. I've got a lot of electrical items. In my lounge at the moment I've got the following items plugged in & switched on:

Television
DVD recorder
Sky+
Two standard lamps
Cordless telephone sitting in its charging base

In addition, there's a music system (plugged in, but switched off at the moment), an iPod, laptop & mobile phone to be recharged.

My study has a computer, 2 printers, scanner, & a combined fax & telephone all plugged in. Plus I have some external powered portable drives, for which I'll need at least one spare socket at any one time.

There are several other electrical items around my home that would need to be plugged in to be used/charged up.

When I viewed my present home, I made a point of checking the number of sockets in each room. My kitchen has at least 6 sockets, but my bedroom only had one single. I knew that before I moved in though - I also knew I'd be able to put another one in if I needed to, & recently added a double to it.

If the landlord's done a lot of work on the property but didn't add more sockets, it's probably because they didn't see the need for them. If they previously lived in the property & managed, they wouldn't necessarily realise people today use more electrical items more regularly. If I was a landlord, I wouldn't object to the tenant engaging a qualified electrician to do the work & paying for the work themselves (subject to certain constraints), but I wouldn't be putting in more sockets if the installation met the regulations, even more so if I or other people had previously lived there without complaint, because the person should have looked. I can understand someone not checking if they moved in an emergency or were blind, but not otherwise.

Gorgeous_George

Certainly not illegal but definitely unwise and inappropriate for modern living.

Both my present home and the one before had one double socket in the main rooms and one single in the bedrooms. There was also a cooker switch with one extra socket. I rewired them both and fitted split load consumer units and loads of sockets. Cost of materials about £200 per house.

If my tenant wanted an extra socket, I would consider it as part of other works. I'm having GCH fitted soon to the BTL and will take the opportunity to have an alarm installed. Maybe I should ask if there are sufficient sockets.

GG

wherediditallgo

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

When we had a two-bedroom council flat in the early 70s, there were only three sockets in the whole place!!

But that was over thirty years ago and we did not have many appliances.

Now my UK house has six in the living room, four in the dining room, six in the kitchen, four in two of the bedrooms, EIGHT in my son's bedroom (he has a lot of stuff!), four in the workshop and two in the cellar.

34 altogether! :eek:

My Mum can beat that. When she & my Dad decided to retire overseas, she designed the house & made a point of having loads of electrical sockets as she hates extension leads. Her lounge has 8, each of the 6 bedrooms has 4, the dining-room has 4, the kitchen has 10, the double garage has 4, the shed (my Dad's second home when he's in her bad books ) has 2, the utility room has 4 & the bathrooms (3) each have a shaver-type socket. That's 57 by my reckoning, & I'm sure I've left some out. She's saying she could do with a few more for when they need to plug in extra fans because of the heat, but she's planning to extend the house in a year or so, so goodness knows how many she'll end up with after that. :eek:

seven-day-weekend

wherediditallgo wrote: »

My Mum can beat that. When she & my Dad decided to retire overseas, she designed the house & made a point of having loads of electrical sockets as she hates extension leads. Her lounge has 8, each of the 6 bedrooms has 4, the dining-room has 4, the kitchen has 10, the double garage has 4, the shed (my Dad's second home when he's in her bad books ) has 2, the utility room has 4 & the bathrooms (3) each have a shaver-type socket. That's 57 by my reckoning, & I'm sure I've left some out. She's saying she could do with a few more for when they need to plug in extra fans because of the heat, but she's planning to extend the house in a year or so, so goodness knows how many she'll end up with after that. :eek:

My Spanish house is nowhere near as big as your mums!

It has eight in the kitchen, two in the hall, eight in the living room, one in the cloakroom/utility, two in each of the three bedrooms (although we use the smallest one as a study and have a five-gang extension lead). We are having an extension which is a workshop with another room above and this will have six in the workshop and eight in the upstairs room. 35 altogether and beats my UK house by one!:eek:

jackieb

When we got the attic converted to a bedroom we got 4 double sockets in - one in each corner. We thought it was excessive but it's what the architect had put in the plans. It's very handy though. There's always a couple spare for a vacuum or phone charger, and we don't need to use extensions.

Someone mentioned Christmas tree lights. I've got a 10 socket surge protector, which stands upright. Most of my extension leads are surge protectors.

Debt_Free_Chick

Not illegal. Might not meet today's building standards, but no-one is forced to upgrade to today's standards anyway (just as well, as we'd be knocking houses down and rebuilding them!).

At the end of the day .... she rented the property with just one socket in the rooms. She basically accepted this when she signed the agreement.

TJ27

Probably not illegal as it stands but it is definitely one of the things council inspectors will look for if they check out a house. I don't specifically deal with this any more, and things have changed so don't rely on it, but there is probably something in the management regs which refers to electrical provisions being adequate. (Edit: Actually there's not. I just looked. I'm sure there's something in some regs though because I remember this being specifically discussed in some training I had about a year ago. The HMO Management regs are full of good stuff for tenants though, so here they are http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/20060372.htm )

Your local council may be able to serve a notice on the landlord telling him to provide more sockets. Then if he doesn't, it's illegal.

But it won't be building control you need to contact, it'll be "Private rented enforcement" or "environmental health" or something.

melancholly

wherediditallgo wrote: »

The bit I don't get is why they didn't check the number of sockets before moving in.

you know, i have never looked at that before renting.... and i only have 2 double sockets now and so need extension cables - but i guarentee that when i end up looking for another place it will be on my check list!! glad that this time i get to learn from someone else's mistake rather than mine!