By Steve Roulstone

The ‘all’ in the title above is referring to all portable electrical goods in any rented accommodation which is a House of Multiple Occupation and in particular the Tenants goods as well as any electrical items supplied  by the Landlord which is not something that would automatically come to mind, but the principals are just the same as the reasons why goods are tested in the first place.

Portable Appliance Testing

It is one of those sayings which gets accepted as an acronym and slips in to our language so easily that the proper meaning can easily be forgotten.  But the reason for testing all appliances supplied by the Landlord, is lost if the appliances supplied by the Tenants are not tested as well. This means any heating device, television or even fridge that they supply, will need to be tested as well, otherwise the whole point of carrying any test out is lost.

Enforcing the rules.

Of course it is how you manage this and of course why it should be done in the first place that needs to be explained. In our case at Stafford, we manage two blocks of rooms (over 60 in each) which are run by Wardens that we supply and the recommendation came about as a result of a Health and Safety and Fire Inspection, on behalf of the insurers, who naturally want to know that everything is being done to minimize the risks involved, especially where foreign students or workers are concerned with electrical items that run on a different current to our own electrical system. (Rice cookers are a prime example) What we do is to advertise the day we have our own test carried out and then allow goods to be tested free of charge.

Contractually bound.

The difficulty is enforcing the rule, which we also add to our contract for the accommodation, because if this opportunity is ignored, then it is almost impossible to enforce the test, so it is very much about communications and taking advantage of every opportunity to have the work carried out, which is why testing for free along with the Landlords property is, we feel, such a good idea.

Computers.

Of course the biggest area is lap tops and computers as virtually every student and indeed worker would now have their own computer, which still needs to be tested and despite the obvious reaction that any test would ‘blow’ the computer, there are set standards and methods (of course!) to follow. Such information is vital when assuring your Tenant that the test needs to be carried out and you are faced with the inevitable statement to do so would destroy the computer.

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