Letting agent beware!

Electrical Inspection and testing is a legal requirement and landlords need to ensure that properties rented out by them are not let without proper inspections and if the landlord does not want to pay for it, they should not be let.

So, you rent out the property on behalf of a landlord, and you think you’re safe from prosecution WRONG.

Corporate manslaughter is reality, not fiction, a recent case of a letting agent who rented out thirty properties for one landlord who refused to get a FULL electrical test and inspection done on his properties.

The ruling was the Landlord was guilty of not carrying out his due diligence and protecting the safety of the tenants by not getting a FULL electrical inspection and testing carried out on the properties; the landlord was fined £,750,000.00 and given a 2-year prison sentence.

What has this got to do with letting agents? As far as the Judge was concerned, the letting agent had a duty of care to the tenant, to ensure the property he was letting was safe, and that all measures had been carried out by the landlord to ensure this had been done, before letting the property!

The letting agent was given a huge fine and given a 1-year suspended sentence, his defence was, I did not know!

The Judges answer is ignorance of the law is no excuse, you had a duty to protect the tenants and as far as possible to ensure their safety, by letting the landlord refuse to carry out a full Electrical test by an approved competent person you failed in that duty of care, you put money before safety, that is unacceptable!

The landlord’s insurance will not pay out to cover him as he did not in the eyes of the law act professionally.

For further information go to our website: – www. safe-electric.com  or contact us by e-mail at [email protected]