5 Safety Checks Landlords Need To Perform
Landlords have the opportunity to generate a nice bit of income through their rental properties. Of course, you’ll need to keep on top of the maintenance work. To make life easier, many landlords work through property management companies. Such companies can help you to handle a lot of the admin involved. One of the most important things is ensuring that your properties are safe for tenants. To keep things above board, pay attention to these five safety checks.
1 . Check the alarms
All rental properties need to be fitted with smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. Before a landlord can rent a property, they’ll need to ensure that these alarms are working properly.
If you need to test your carbon monoxide detector first you will need to press the ‘test’ button, hold this button until it makes two beeping sounds. Once both beeps have sounded, move your finger away from the button. Repeat the same action, waiting for four beeps, instead of two. As long as you hear 4, you can be sure that the monitor is working, and the signal was received by the monitoring station.
2. Check the electricity
As a landlord, you’ll need to ensure that electricity checks are carried out on all your properties. All work must be completed and scheduled to adhere to US electrical laws. Landlords must ensure that any electricians that they use are insured and licensed. The electrical appliances need to be inspected as well as the building itself.
3. Gas inspections
It is a landlords responsibility to adhere to the correct Gas Safety Regulations, for the country and state. Regulations state that landlords need to maintain appliances containing gas, flues from these appliances ,and gas pipework. Most state regulations require an annual inspection, the inspection involves checking for leaks, and checking that all appliances are working correctly. You’ll need to arrange for a gas engineer to complete the following checks:
Visually inspect the appliances.
Take a note of the burner pressure and the gas rate.
Inspect the air supply and the ventilation.
Take a reading of the pressure vessel.
Obtain the correct gas safety certificate.
4. Asbestos inspection
If you rent out older buildings you may need to hire an asbestos professional, to check the building for asbestos. When asbestos dust gets into the air this can cause a major health hazard, and even cause mesothelioma. When a person is affected by mesothelioma this can often lead to a mesothelioma lawsuit.
If by any chance you can't any professional to take a look at this, you can take a sample of suspected asbestos and have it tested yourself
5. Fire safety
Lastly, you’ll need to ensure that your properties adhere to fire regulations. From fire doors and making sure they have full door closers, to fire extinguishers, it’s important to see that your rental properties have all the correct equipment. As well as this, you must provide your tenants with the appropriate fire safety info that they need.
Acting as a landlord can be a great investment opportunity, but you’ll need to ensure that you adhere to the correct laws and regulations. To avoid common landlord problems, it’s important to take great care of your properties!
