Landlord Protection Plan
Landlord Protection Plan
The Landlord Protection Plan (LPP) is designed to ensure that landlords do not fall foul of the relevant gas and electrical safety legislation. The LPP includes the following:
Gas Safety Inspection
- Inspection and testing of the gas installation.
- Inspection and testing of the gas appliances (e.g. boiler, cooker and fires).
- Inspection and identification of any gas leaks or poisonous carbon monoxide (CO).
Gas Boiler Service
Neglected gas boilers can be a principle source of leaks and CO poisoning. Regular servicing not only protects the occupants of a property, it extends the life of the boiler and ensures that it runs economically.
Electrical Safety Inspection
- An inspection and test of the electrical appliances provided to the tenant
- A visual and functional inspection of the electrical installation
- Establish if the correct protective bonding conductors are present
- The circuits on the consumer unit to be listed
- An earth fault loop impedance test on a sample of sockets throughout the property. The highest result from this sample is to be recorded
- A functional test of the RCD
- An assessment of the visual condition of the consumer unit
Case Study: Sparks coming out of the floorboards!
A landlord rang our East Anglia manager to say that one of their tenants had reported sparks coming out of the floorboards! The house housed foreign farm workers and when the engineer got there he found signs of "dabbling with the electrics".
The fundamental problem, however, was with the original installation. Several years ago a central heating pipe had been installed too close to an electrical cable in the socket circuit. Over a period of time the heat from the pipe melted the cable, which blew the fuse in the consumer unit. The fuse had been replaced and, being a safety feature, blew again. To prevent this nuisance, someone inserted a paperclip in place of the fuse wire. The resulting arcing from the cable blew a hole in the central heating pipe.
When the central heating was on, water from the leaking pipe hit the bare, live cable causing firecracker-like explosions under the floor and sparks to shoot out from the gap between the skirting board and floorboards. When Adrian pulled back the carpet, he saw that the floorboards were beginning to burn.
The engineer had to break up the floor to effect a repair, but there would have been a fire had he not been called in. His visit pinpointed some other areas of concern - another paperclip 'fuse' to the upstairs lighting circuit and no RCD protection - so, a short time later, the agent wisely brought him back to do a periodic inspection and all the resulting remedial work to make the property safe.
