I think the “not” must be for non urgent situations, where 21 days is given to comply, and maybe a right to appeal. The rules presumably allow for Councils to serve an emergency notice with immediate effect for C1 type situations, where there is no right for the landlord to drag things out at the expense of the tenants safety.
Blup
Is an inspector permitted to leave site with an unresolved code C1? Even if simply isolated I would think not? So if a Council had to serve an emergency notice with immediate effect, there would be a lot more going on at the same time, for one the Council would need to find alternative accommodation for the tenant, and also one would hope if an inspector had missed a C1 likely court proceedings would be started against the inspector.
I do see a problem when unlike the car MOT anyone can simply say I know what I am doing so I will do inspections, "“qualified person” means a person competent to undertake the inspection and testing required under regulation 3(1) and any further investigative or remedial work in accordance with the electrical safety standards;" and a private landlord must "3(1)(b)ensure every electrical installation in the residential premises is inspected and tested at regular intervals by a qualified person;" so it is down to the landlord to ensure the inspector is qualified, do remember it is not possible to have an illegal contract in law, so if the person is not qualified no insurance will cover.
If the C&G2391 (qualification considered required to do inspection and testing) like a driving licence could be revoked, then the authorities could stop him doing inspections easily, but to stop some one trading they would need a court order, and I can't see that happening in a hurry. On the few times there have
been court cases one it is after a death, not a simple report of bad practice, and to it was the landlord and the electrician who were jailed, which clearly stopped the electrician for a year, but reading the report there were many faults including theft.
So one is left with one inspector says OK and the other not OK, so to resolve the issue the next inspector needs to be more qualified than the two who have already given their opinion. And when my son pointed out the problem to our local council in that their inspector would need to be higher qualified than me to be able to over ride my opinion they backed down. They had not side anything wrong, they just wanted me to pay for an independent inspector.
So down to nitty gritty, if council says this must be done, and if not we will do it and charge the landlord, which it seems is an option, can the landlord say sorry I have had enough, they can find another home I am selling up? It would depend on the contract of course, but when it came to working out what to do with my mothers old house, rent or sell, I looked at all the laws to rent, and said forget that for a lark.
My son decided he would rent his old house, and he is paying more in mortgage repayments than he is getting in rent. So until mortgage is paid off, he is losing money. However in many cases the landlord can have a mortgage and still make money, and you ask the question if a mortgage is less than the rent, why rent? In the main two reasons, one is it is temporary, my wife rented when living in London as she knew the job was temporary, or they can't get a mortgage, if they can't get a mortgage then if may be due to some past event like being bankrupt, but also could be they don't have the income large enough, so a landlord is taking a risk in that he may not get the rent. OK not quite that simple, I know with my mother because the house was hers, getting help from council was limited, and they could basely lend her the money she needed to live then sell the house on her death to settle the account. Hence why the special mortgages to release money tied up in ones home, it is a way of getting around having to pay for living in a retirement home. However can give the home away to children anyway, as long as they don't become bankrupt.
But there is a lack of rental accommodation, and this is why the Welsh government has not followed the English lead, they are worried that making it harder to rent out will reduce to homes for rent and increase the number of homeless. And when you hear about people fighting to get landlords to fix things rather than moving to a home with better landlord it seems to reinforce the idea there is a lack of homes to rent.
So there has to be a balance, complain too much, and landlord may simply say enough is enough, unless the contract stops him.
