Private renters in Northern Ireland set to receive periodic electrical safety checks

The private rented sector (PRS) is the second largest housing tenure in Northern Ireland following owner-occupation. Our chronic social housing shortage means that, amongst other things the PRS is the most realistic avenue for people on the social housing waiting list who do not have sufficient priority to get a social home (unless their circumstances drastically change). With almost 40,000 applicants on the waiting list, it is crucial that we have a PRS that is safe, affordable and fit for purpose to help alleviate this level of housing need.

Recharge – a new report on Northern Ireland’s homes by leading safety charity Electrical Safety First – found private tenants had less protection from electrical risk than in other parts of the UK. Both England and Scotland require landlords to carry out five-yearly checks, with Wales soon to follow suit, whereas private landlords in Northern Ireland have no such requirement placed upon them. The report also estimated that an annual saving of almost £9 million could be made if electrical hazards in the housing stock in Northern Ireland were addressed.

CIH Northern Ireland is pleased that the minister for communities intends to bring forward legislation that will place a duty on private landlords to carry out periodic electrical checks within their properties as part of the introduction of an overall Private Rented Bill.  In response to a recent question in the Northern Ireland Assembly, minister Deirdre Hargey announced that her department “proposes to make a new enabling provision that will impose duties on landlords to carry out a periodic electrical check for any domestic private rented property. As a result, landlords will be prevented from commencing a new lease without the certification of an electrical check.”

For some time now, both prospective and existing tenants in the PRS have viewed the sector with a degree of apprehension, given the well-rehearsed issues around security of tenure and affordability concerns in comparison to those living of social housing. Divergence in areas such as electrical safety checks, where PRS tenants may not receive periodic electrical checks, only serves to inflict further reputational damage to a sector upon which we increasingly rely.

The minister’s commitment to introduce electrical safety checks in the PRS, which has an increasing level of older people and families with children living in it, will increase confidence among tenants, who previously feared that a complaint to their landlord about electrical safety could result in a termination of tenancy. Above all else, this critical change will inevitably decrease the chance of harm caused to tenants as a result of an electrical fault and substantially reduce the potential of loss of life.