EICR and RCD Protection

Discussion in 'Electricians' Talk' started by TheAllenFamily, Apr 5, 2021.

  1. Mr Rusty

    Mr Rusty Screwfix Select

    If you read these statements together, they are, IMHO, legally compatible. The "rented sector" regs say safety standards mean (all the standards referred to) in the 18th edition. The actual 18th edition regs actually state within the regs, installations designed to earlier regs are not necessarily unsafe or require upgrading. Therefore a fully compliant 16th edition installation is also compliant with the rented sector regs, because the 18th edition to which it refers, states that the earlier edition standards are still valid.

    IMHO the rented sector regs DO NOT insist that older installations have to be compliant with 18th edition as if they were designed after 31-12-18

    I'm no sparks, but read contracts virtually every day. In contractual terms, the actualite is "what the contract says", not what people think it should say...If the rented sector regs wanted installations to be upgraded, then this would have been specifically written in, and it isn't.

    However, until there is a test case, this is all to some extent subjective - that is how UK law works - once someone feels strongly enough, a legal case creates a judgement that sets the precedent.

    However, playing devil's advocate "This does not necessarily mean that they are unsafe" is open to interpretation, because it then begs the question "who decides if an older installation is unsafe?". The answer is, of course, the sparks doing the inspection, who has a duty of care. There is inevitably a grey area between arbitrarily upgrading everything (because you can't be wrong), or doing a risk assessment of an older installation. The muddying of the water is caused by the sparks doing the assessment also being the person who gains from doing the work, which is a bit of a conflict of interest.....
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2021

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