UK Water leak, do we need a "dryness check" before re-testing the electrics?

[ancienthistory]

Hello, you all helped me out recently when we had a water leak (mostly in kitchen ceiling), and my landlord's contractor was saying the household circuits couldn't even be tested for 28 days after the leak due to a "28 day rule". Thank you so much for educating me about that! Here is the previous thread: Turning consumer unit on after water damage - https://www.electriciansforums.net/threads/turning-consumer-unit-on-after-water-damage.205295/

The landlord's contractor now has a new story. He is saying that he cannot perform a full electrical test until there has been a "dryness check" of the property. By this he means something formal where a surveyor checks moisture levels of certain bits of wall. The property has had electric heaters & dehumidifiers running for 11 days now and feels dry inside. There was never any obvious water damage to electrical terminals (except for kitchen ceiling spotlights), but just in case all faceplates have been left off for over 11 days now.

I suppose it is hypothetically possible that there is still some dampness in walls/ceilings which has not yet dried, I'm not sure about that. But I would have thought this would be pretty irrelevant for circuitry, obviously the main lengths of cables are insulated. In any event as a nonexpert I can't see any reason why following a full electrics test the consumer unit couldn't be reenergised. I already got an electrician to do a quick insulation resistance/RCD check and everything was OK there.

I would really love to hear from all you experts how I should get back to my landlord. We would be really grateful for more advice as we have 3 kids and nowhere to live at the moment while the landlord won't even test the electrics. Thanks in advance.

 

[littlespark]

It all really depends on the severity of the flood, and it now yours seems much more than I first thought on the other thread.

As I mentioned on other thread, my neighbour had a burst pipe in attic which brought down one bedroom ceiling and the living room below.
All the faceplates and metal back boxes had to be replaced…. And of course the consumer unit.

The landlord may be following his insurers guidelines on how to proceed.

 

[snowhead]

I would really love to hear from all you experts how I should get back to my landlord. We would be really grateful for more advice as we have 3 kids and nowhere to live at the moment while the landlord won't even test the electrics. Thanks in advance.

Your Landlord should have provided you with suitable similar alternative accomodation from day 1 of the flood, Maybe Hotel / B&B for the first night but then more permanent.

They should have been covered for those costs by their insurance and if not they would have to pay out themselves.
They should also have covered removal fees both ways if appropriate.

Re the "Dryness check", if they want to be that technical about it, then they should have had a surveyor out at the start who would have determined what method of drying out was suitable and then done regular checks whilst drying out was taking place to assess how much longer it needed.

It wouldn't take much to do a quick electrical test in the area that was most affected to see how well that had dried and if initial tests were O.k then carry on and complete.

 

[davesparks]

Your Landlord should have provided you with suitable similar alternative accomodation from day 1 of the flood,

Are you sure about that?

With every tenancy agreent I've had a major disaster which renders the property uninhabitable ends the tenancy.

Generally there is no requirement for a landlord to provide alternative accomodation unless it is specified in the tenancy agreement.

 

[snowhead]

Are you sure about that?

With every tenancy agreent I've had a major disaster which renders the property uninhabitable ends the tenancy.

Generally there is no requirement for a landlord to provide alternative accomodation unless it is specified in the tenancy agreement.

No, I'm not certain about it, but having checked it appears I'm wrong, there is no obligation unless stated.

So if I hire a car and it breaks down the supplier provides me with another at no extra cost, yet if the house I rent is uninhabitable not only do I have to find my own alternative accomodation and pay for it I also still have to pay rent on the unihabitable one, unless the there is a specific exclusion and the Landlord agrees to me not paying rent.

 

[littlespark]

Nightmare tenants deliberately flooding a property just to screw over the landlord if they had to give alternative accommodation?

It would end the tenancy immediately as the landlord can no longer offer the property to the tenant to live in. Contract cannot be fulfilled. Tenant can stop paying rent.

 

[Rockingit]

So I've had first-hand experience of just this (well... not as a tenant, as an owner). About 12 years ago the psycho now-ex and I went away for a long weekend and returned to find the house basically in swimming pool mode, water was up to window sill height having had a catastrophic failure of a header tank in the roof. Thankfully all fully insured and the loss adjuster (in the early days, anyway) absolutely took the bull by the horns with a 'this is why you have insurance, this is on us' can-do attitude. We spent nine months living in a holiday cottage rental up the road, all paid for.

Total 'grade four' devastation, all internal stud walls / ceilings removed and replaced, total saturation of plaster and block (at one point I went on site and from the front door was looking up at the rafters....). I naturally took the opportunity to do a full rewire after having seen the bodge-state of the insurance contractors electricians and threw them off site!

Anyway.... back to 'dryness' tests. This isn't really a 'thing', electrically speaking. If water has ingressed into wiring systems then it will show on an IR test which you say has already been done. If you test at 1-2kv rather than the standard 500v (some test machines will do this) then you can even watch the thing dry out as the readings go up! After that, it's really no different to doing a final fix on a a new-build with fresh plaster, the place is fundamentally all still drying out but in a manageable way. Corrosion on back-boxes etc CAN be a thing but again, a visual inspection and maybe a wipe-down are normally fine. I had a reasonable excuse to do a full re-wire at the insurer's expense as the tank which split was a heating header so there was also furnox everywhere and with is a theoretical risk of corrosion to the PVC - so I basically did a deal with the insurers that I'd do the labour free and they'd just pay for materials, which suited me fine. Took me about 3 days over the Christmas break and got me out and away from the kids, was a win-win.

I'm surprised that there's no requirement for alternative accomodation in a rental scenario, you might want to check with your local council housing office about that one, particularly as since the law changed regarding electrical safety and the need for a property to be 'satisfactory' to be rented, and if you are being advised by the 'landlords' electrician that it isn't, you might find you have a loophole to exploit. I believe you are also entitled to sight of the Landlords PL insurance, again a legal mandatory requirement.

 

[davesparks]

So if I hire a car and it breaks down the supplier provides me with another at no extra cost, yet if the house I rent is uninhabitable not only do I have to find my own alternative accomodation and pay for it I also still have to pay rent on the unihabitable one, unless the there is a specific exclusion and the Landlord agrees to me not paying rent.

Hireing a car is very different, a slightly more appropriate comparison would be a car on a long term lease. In that situation I don't think you'd get the car replaced automatically quite so readily.

If a rented property is rendered uninhabitable by a disaster you no longer have to pay rent, it automatically ends the tenancy at the time it becomes uninhabitable (assuming a normal AST type tenancy)