With new laws/Regulations coming into affect for The rental market!!

[Rossi2828]

hi new to the forum this may have been asked already not too sure would just like to get some opinions on the following, with new rental laws coming into to play from 1st of July this year, (2020) stating that a property needs to be up to current 18th edition standards. Now this I understand is near on impossible in certain situations, but my main question to you is all combustible consumer Units that either have RCDs in place RCBOs, what are people going to be marking on there certs I previously before this new law comes into play have been putting it down as a C3 are people just going to change now and put it as C1 or C2 ??

 

[pc1966]

Doe that confirm that existing Electrical Installations in rented properties do not have to be upgraded to comply with the 18th Edition Regulations ?

It has always been the case with EICR that strict compliance with the current IET regulations is not required, only that it is considered safe. So nobody expects that rented properties have to be upgraded to the latest regulations in entirety, only that some safety-related points (e.g. lack of RCD protection on outdoor sockets, etc) might be.

What kicked off this thread's discussion is the rather imprecise wording of the latest legislation that could be interpreted as meaning that older properties would have to be brought in strict compliance with the 18th regulations (or worse, in a few years forcing a down-grade from 19th regulations to the 18th!) even though we do not expect that is the intention of it.

 

[UNG]

hi new to the forum this may have been asked already not too sure would just like to get some opinions on the following, with new rental laws coming into to play from 1st of July this year, (2020) stating that a property needs to be up to current 18th edition standards. Now this I understand is near on impossible in certain situations, but my main question to you is all combustible consumer Units that either have RCDs in place RCBOs, what are people going to be marking on there certs I previously before this new law comes into play have been putting it down as a C3 are people just going to change now and put it as C1 or C2 ??

Having reviewed the OP trying to understand why a plastic consumer unit is referred to as a combustible consumer unit it sounds like something that after a predefined time will self destruct and burst into flames

At the time it was a pity that the legislators didn't look at the wider picture and home in on the poor training that has overtaken the industry which may also have a bearing on the failure of consumer units resulting in fires. I have never found any info on how many plastic consumer units were sold in the years before amendment 3 and what percentage actually resulted in a fire, in the year before amd3 London led the way with just over 250 fires the rest of the UK if I remember correctly had 8

Does a plastic consumer unit in a fire lined enclosure warrant any code like wise if the consumer unit is not installed within an escape route does it warrant a code, "eg: metal " was one of the most misleading things of amendment 3 and misinterpreted by so many the mantra that resulted was plastic bad metal good and a lot of people on the ground seem to want to swap a plastic consumer unit just because it "may" spontaneously burst into flames