There are a whole pile of regulations which are in some way linked to the electrical installation in a dwelling, and with rental property some one will be working when they visit, be it landlord, his agent, care assist, police so it is a place of work so the electricity at work regulations apply.
So when we read BS 7671 it has a list of the regulations it has been designed to incorporate, CENELEC harmonization documents for example, although BS 7671 gives a date at which any electrical system designed after that date needs to comply with it, and systems designed before that date don't need to comply, if you read
BS 7671:2008 said:
Existing installations that have been installed in accordance with earlier editions of the Regulations may not comply with this edition in every respect. This does not necessarily mean that they are unsafe for continued use or require upgrading.
Not necessarily unsafe, can also be read as not necessarily safe.
If we look at cars, with an MOT in the main we can continue to use a car built in 1890 without seat belts, but those built in the 60's had to have them fitted so you could continue to use the car on public roads. But the government went to a lot of work to allow vintage and veteran cars to be used without modifying their design. With cut off dates for things like seat belts and rear guard fog warning. And they published their own boot saying exactly what the limits are.
This has not happened with the rental housing market, they have used the BS 7671 publication as a easy quick way to introduce regulations without writing their own book, and BS 7671 is not written only for domestic electrical systems, only the supply industry does not use BS 7671.
The EICR is also not designed for domestic it also covers offices shops and railway premises, electricity at work act, the CENELEC Harmonization Document reference alone lists around 30 documents. My daughter is an archaeologist and at one time was involved with what could be done to listed buildings. There was many a discussion when new disability regulations required things like lifts and stair lifts, but the existing stair case was of special archaeology interest, and she could over rule the council planning departments, but in turn they could say that building is no longer suitable find another building, so some give and take was required. However the point is BS 7671 may not be retrospective, but some of the rules it is based on are.
The electrical safety council best practice guide 4 issue 4 listed missing label saying no earth to lights as code C2 but with the label in place it was C3, but issue 5 makes no reference to labels informing of missing earths, and to be fair the rules on earth on lighting changed in 1966 and every 10 years you were to get a PIR done (old name for EICR) so the owner will have been told at least 5 times that an upgrade is recommended. BS 7671 first came out in 1992, the
FIRST EDITION Entitled `Rules and Regulations for the Prevention of Fire Risks Arising from Electric Lighting'. was issued in 1882, but that was not at that time a British standard, the 16th Edition came out in 1991 and in 1992 it was reprinted as BS 7671:1992 so to try and claim an electrical installation designed before 1992 was to British standard does not ring true.
The electrical safety council issue 5 still shows this picture.
And my old house still has two of these fuse boxes,
but if you look above them is another box with two RCD's one for each fuse box, and the fuses have been replaced for MCB's, so the only thing is the fire resistance properties of the boxes, and to be frank in a garage with fire resistance ceiling there is not really a problem anyway.
This thread sums up the problem, as electricians we simply don't know what BS-EN-61439-3 says, we know we want that number written on the consumer unit, but not what the wording is.
We have seen the authorised document for part P and also seen the actual law, and you wonder if the person writing the authorised document actually read the law, and when it goes wrong as with the cladding on the towers, we are all told how some one did not read or ensure the produce he was using complied. We read again and again about people who have done exactly as we have done for years, the
Emma Shaw death was an awaking for many of us, I would have sent my electricians mate to take the readings, he only had to plug it in, press a button, and write down what it said, and had I seen OL instead of 1.23 Ω then I would have gone and inspected myself, but no way would I have even dreamed the mate would fudge up results in the tea hut.
I still think many are going OTT issuing C2 for items which have been like that without problems for years, however I can also understand why they code it C2, they don't want the fate of the foreman in the Emma Shaw case.
However it is rapidly becoming a major problem, faced with a £3000 bill for a re-wire, and possibly also with rent arrears due to Covid19 there is a big reason to say forget it, I have had enough, I am selling up, and since the new rules mean the home with a C2 for more than 28 days is considered uninhabitable the owner has an easy way out. It has not come in yet for existing tenants, so as yet we don't know the real effect, but likely we will see more homeless as a result of the new law.
All I can say, thank god I have retired.
