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Landlord Alert: faulty electrical appliances cause 43 fires a week in England

Faulty appliances cause an average of 43 fires a week in England alone, according to an electrical product platform.

Research by Electrical Direct shows that 15,000 accidental fires in homes across England - not all attributable to faulty appliances - occurred between April 2019 and March 2020, with cookers, toasters, and hobs reported to be the most likely to cause fires. 

Cookers were responsible for 8,000 accidental fires in 2019/20, some 53 per cent of total appliance fires in England. Hot plates and toasters came second and third, causing 11 per cent and nine per cent of fires respectively. 

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The most common causes for accidental appliance fires were placing household items too close to sources of heat, misuse of appliances and reported faults; but 15 per cent of accidental blazes were down to the appliances being faulty.

The biggest culprits in this category were washing machines, accountable for nearly a quarter (23 per cent) followed by tumble dryers (20 per cent) and cookers (nine per cent).

 

Dominick Sandford, director at ElectricalDirect, says: “Make sure new appliances are registered so that manufacturers can contact you in the event of any problems. It is easy to do and takes minutes, just visit registermyappliance.org.uk.

“If you notice an appliance isn’t working properly make sure you seek professional help when looking to get it repaired. Attempting to repair an appliance yourself may result in further damage, increasing the risk of fire and even electrocution.”

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    • D G
    • 05 March 2021 10:04 AM

    Hang on a minute: "Landlord Alert: faulty electrical appliances cause 43 fires a week in England"
    "Research by Electrical Direct shows that 15,000 accidental fires in homes across England "
    "but 15 per cent of accidental blazes were down to the appliances being faulty."
    So 15% of 15000 is 2250 which makes it just over 6 a day

    PossessionFriendUK PossessionFriend

    6 a day, multiplied by 7 days is 42 a week ?

     
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    As much to do with homeowners as it is to do with tenanted houses

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    I think tenanted properties have proportionately many more fires than owner occupied properties, despite mandatory alarms and electrical checks in rental properties not required in owner occupied properties

    I have always let flats with everything checked and working, but not always had them returned like that.

    I suggest the tenants, and not the properties or appliances provided, are responsible for most of the fires through their lifestyles and behaviour. Owner occupiers tend to be more careful and responsible.

     
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    So 15% of Appliances were faulty which I very much doubt more needs to be added to missus or carelessness. Also 85% were not faulty and due to other causes, all new appliances are certified to comply with all the Regulations, they are made as good as they can make them.
    LANDLORD ALERT why is this the heading or what point are they insinuating because this refers to all properties including Home owners not just the ones that's Rented

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    If the appliance was the location of said fires was this because they were turned on with flamable content and not turned off? Did the occupier just go out without checking first everything was turned off? Looks like a loss of memory in many cases to me. Not something anyone, let alone a landlord, can do about that unless someone has a box of memory pils available!

  • PossessionFriendUK PossessionFriend

    Its always been known that Appliances or Overloading plug sockets ( extension leads etc ) account for by far the number of Fires, yet the Govt saw fit to impose EICR on PRS Only !

    Its as if the Electricity consumed by Social and Council Housing comes from a different Grid of Non-lethal electricity !!! of else Non-PRS tenants are vaccinated against Electrocution ?
    Daft, isn't it ( or is it just the Govt' biased treatment of Private Landlords )

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    Agreed, I would say that council / housing assoc tenants would be MORE likely to cause fires than our tenants, after all we check out our tenants out very carefully now where as social housing take the dregs that no one else wants

     
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    • 17 March 2021 11:25 AM

    What happened to David Crisp?

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