It is our job as a National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC) accredited company, who have been contracted to do so by your Landlord Paradigm Housing Association, to verify all electrical appliances within your home every 5 years (assuming there is no change of tenancy) and provide you with an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) certificate, which will then be valid for the next 5 years if you remain at the same address. A valid EICR certificate is also required upon every change of tenancy, along with a Landlord Gas Safety Record certificate if the property has any gas appliances.
Following is important information about EICR requirements on Landlords to ensure they look after their residents, and why it is vitally important residents allow EICR trained electrical engineers from an accredited NICEIC company into their home on a previously agreed date.
Since 2005, all electrical installation work in a home, garden, conservatory or outbuilding must meet the requirements of Part P of the Building Regulations and failure to comply with Part P could be a criminal offence, whether carried out professionally or as Do It Yourself.
The reason Part P is in place to help keep you and your family as safe as possible from electrical hazards, and applies to any alterations or additions to electrical installations in existing properties, including full or partial rewires.
Who is responsible for making sure that electrical work in your home meets the requirements of Part P?
By law your Landlord must be able to prove that all electrical installation work on their property meets the requirements of Part P, or they will be committing a criminal offence. Local Authorities have the power to make Landlords remove or alter any work that does not meet the requirements of the Building Regulations.
What electrical work is notifiable in England?
Certain types of electrical work must either be reported before being started to the local building control body, or be carried out by a registered NICEIC electrical contractor who will notify the work on completion. All electrical installation work, including notifiable work by electrical contractors should be checked and certified as part of the job to ensure that the work carried out complies with the Building Regulations.
When using a registered electrical contractor, you or your Landlord do not need to notify your Local Building Control Body in advance, as the electrical contractor will do this when the work is finished.
Changes were introduced to Part P in England in April 2013. This means that electrical work in a dwelling, or associated with its surroundings, is notifiable to a local building control body where it includes:
- circuit alteration or addition in a special location*
- installation of one or more new circuits
- installation of a replacement consumer unit (fuse box)
- rewire of all circuits
- partial rewire
- new full electrical installation (new build)
* Certain zones within a room containing a bath or shower, or a room containing a swimming pool or sauna heater.
Electrical safety can be a matter of life and death, as faulty appliances can start fires or cause electrocution. In addition to Electrical Safety Checks QHS also undertake LGSR annual gas safety checks, service heating appliances, check smoke alarms, heat sensors and carbon monoxide detectors.
Keeping Your Appointment (or re-arranging it well ahead of time)
We will mutually agree and book a suitable appointment with you to visit your home, so if for whatever reason the morning or afternoon you have agreed as the day one of our qualified EICR electrical engineers will undertake the inspection then becomes a date you cannot subsequently make, do please contact us as soon as possible so we can a) re-schedule your appointment, and b) also to enable us to offer your slot to somebody else if you simply cannot be in when you agreed.
What To Expect From Us
Whenever possible, we will carry out EICR safety checks (and necessary work) on our first visit. All our electrical engineers are EICR accredited and our staff work professionally, treating you and your property with respect.
What We Request From You:
- Please ensure somebody over the age of 18 is present for the duration of our engineers’ visit as we cannot be in your home unsupervised
- Please ensure your electric meter has credit (where applicable), as we will need to run appliances to check them
- Please kindly clear the area in and around your appliances to enable easy access
You are obliged within your tenancy agreement to grant reasonable access into your home for your EICR check. If you repeatedly refuse to give access, your landlord Paradigm Housing Association has the option to apply for a court order to do so.
If you think we might be able to assist you further, please feel free to drop us an email at customer-services@qhs.co.uk
