Landlords – Are your appliances safe to use?

 

As a landlord, it is your responsibility to ensure that any appliance you provide in your property are safe for your tenants to use.

 

However, there are have been a number of high profile property fires recently, where the source of the fire has been identified as being a faulty appliance. Not least of these was the recent tragedy at Grenfell Tower.

 

Nationally, less than half of adults (43 per cent) register their appliances with a manufacturer, leaving many owners untraceable if a product needs a safety repair.

 

As a result, the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances (AMDEA), set up Register My Appliance (RMA) as a not-for-profit safety initiative, in an attempt to increase the number of appliances that are registered, and therefore improve the ability for manufacturers to communicate to owners if a safety repair is required.

 

Register My Appliance is an easy to navigate online portal where landlords, their agents or their tenants can register their appliances so they are kept informed should there be any product recalls or safety notices.

 

Quick and Easy

The web portal is designed to make it quicker and easier for the public to register all of their appliances – old and new – to improve ownership data. By simply clicking on the brand logo the user reaches a data entry form linked directly to the relevant manufacturer, where the vast majority accept registrations of products up to 12 years old. It captures accurate contact information of owners of specific models of appliances, allowing manufacturers to issue safety updates or repair notifications to the right homes.

Register My Appliance is supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, as well as most safety and consumer groups.

AMDEA works to promote the initiative nationwide, with organisations such as Trading Standards and the Fire Services, including the 46 fire and rescue authorities across England and the Fire Services in Scotland and Wales.

Let your tenants know

Make sure you let your tenants know about the scheme so that they can add the appliances in their homes to the register. You can also download this poster which you can leave in the rental property or pin to a noticeboard in HMOs. 

Other Useful Information

In addition to the registration section, the Register My Appliance website includes other valuable features including a safety repair and recall listings, hints for household safety, tips for appliance care, explanations of product testing and standards, guarantees and warranties and the AMDEA members’ code of practice on product safety.