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 For
many domestic properties, including those that are being
rented out, Health & Safety and other legislation requires
that the electrical installation (fixed wiring) be
maintained in a safe condition. Periodic Inspection,
Testing and rectification of any problems found, is one method
of ensuring compliance with the legislation. A landlord may be
asked by their letting
agent to obtain a Periodic Inspection Report as a means of satisfying
their statutory 'duty of care' towards the safety of
their tenants with respect to the fixed wiring.
Electrical
installations deteriorate due to a number of factors including
wear and tear, age, corrosion damage etc and to ensure these
installations remain in satisfactory condition for continued
service, periodic maintenance should be carried out. The first
step in identifying any problems with an existing electrical
installation is to carry out inspection and test procedures.
The
Periodic Inspection Report is 4 pages long and adopts the format recommended in
the IEE Wiring Regulations (BS7671:2008). After
performing a series of visual checks and electrical
measurements the report will list observations of any items requiring
remedial maintenance. These will be categorised using
the coding 1 to 4 as follows:-
|
1 |
Requires
urgent attention |
Any items
which are regarded as an immediate danger e.g. exposed live
conductive part due to a broken accessory. |
|
2 |
Requires
Improvement |
Any items
which would be regarded as a potential danger and require
attention as soon as possible, e.g. absence of main bonding. |
|
3 |
Requires
Further Investigation |
Any item where
a problem has been identified but the cause is not readily
apparent e.g. low insulation resistance. |
|
4 |
Does not
comply with the current issue of BS7671 |
Any item which
does not comply with BS7671:2008 (but which may have complied
with older editions) where improvement would increase
the safety of the installation, e.g. 30mA RCD protection of 13A
socket outlets not provided. |
In
general, if the report includes any observations coded 1 or 2
this would deem the overall assessment of the installation
'un-satisfactory' and would require remedial maintenance to be carried
out urgently for a code 1 and as soon as possible for a code
2.
If the electrical installation is very old or has never had a
full Periodic Inspection and maintenance carried out within
the last 15 years or so then it will usually require a degree
of remedial maintenance to bring it up to the current safe
standard. This is especially so with regard to the
requirements for protective earthing and bonding.
We are happy to quote a price for any
remedial maintenance work
identified. You are also free to use our Periodic Inspection Report to obtain
quotes from others.
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