Protecting Your Investment and Your Tenants
To mark the beginning of Electrical Safety Week (7-11 Sept), the Electrical Safety Office (ESO) recently hosted a webinar for property owners and agents regarding electrical safety in rental properties.
The webinar explains how property owners are responsible for ensuring the electrical system meets strict safety standards. The ESO explained that seemingly innocuous signs such as small ‘shocks’ when lights are switched on or a ‘tingling’ feeling from touching water running from a tap, should be regarded as signs of electrical faults that must be attended to as a matter of urgency.
They featured tragic stories of how tenants have been electrocuted by performing simple household tasks due to faulty or illegal electrical equipment at the property such as safety switches not being installed correctly.
For these reasons, the ESO sets out strict guidelines for safety, and both property owners as well as agents face severe penalties for not adhering to these guidelines. In fact, placing a tenant at risk of injury from electrical faults can cost the owner up to $300,000 in fines or five years’ imprisonment. Agencies are also liable for hefty fines. Note that these penalties will apply even if nothing happens to the tenant – they merely have to be put ‘at risk’.
Our owner clients are all aware that the safety of our tenants is top priority when it comes to maintaining our properties. Not only does this meet our Duty of Care to our tenants, it also protects our clients by reducing liability risk and of course protects their investment.
This is why we have set up strict procedures on how to deal with repairs. And with no room for error when it comes to electrical issues, we regard these as emergencies to be acted upon as soon as we become aware of them as even one hour’s delay could cost the owner dearly – and worse, could cost a life.
Click here to watch the webinar.
The lasting message from the ESO is sobering and prophetic:
‘Electricity is a silent killer – and rarely gives a second chance.’
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