WAR IN UKRAINE NEW CONSUMER UNIT REQUIRED

John, that is a very kind and thoughtful suggestion. I would be willing to help, but how would bona fide hosts find us?

As for the question of a requirement, there is some info here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homes-for-ukraine-sponsor-guidance. No mention of EICR, but all sorts of security checks and CO alarms required, so Pearson Towers would fail. I suspect in your friend's case, somebody in the Council is being a little over-zealous.

I cannot help feeling that electrical standards here would be better than in Ukraine, but that isn't quite the point. What would be very counter-productive would be willing hosts turned town on account of the standard of the accommodation.

Just another thought. Most of the refugees seem to be women, children, and the infirm on the basis that fit men have to stay home and fight. If there are any electricians amongst the displaced, could they be given a leg up?

it seems odd to me that a BS7671 EICR is a condition of personally inviting guests to reside in a private dwelling

I don't disagree. I suspect however the details have been left down to local councils - who rather than invent something new in a very short timescale have simply adopted something they already have - probably the requirements for private rented accommodation, which as we all know has a BS 7671:2018 stipulation. In some situations the refugees will be housed seperately from the host family - in an annexe or holiday flat or even seperate premises they happen to own - so the difference between that and private rented might not be that great (other than the hosts effectively donating the value of the rent).

   - Andy.

John Peckham said:

For my part If any one is going to house Ukrainians under the government scheme, in Essex, I would do a free EICR as my small contribution. Perhaps others might want to join me in offering this service for free?

What a warm-hearted gesture and brilliant suggestion ... and reminiscent of our true national spirit at a time like this.

What a Scholar and Gentleman!

Full round of applause for JP.

So we have these desperate people fleeing a war zone where they have a very high probability of death and the bureaucrats are insisting that host families, who are living in their own homes with a very low probability of anything, let alone death, have to upgrade their electrical systems in order to house them. I really hope you have been misinformed John. I've long thought that the regulations are over zealous, you simply can't eliminate risk entirely, but this would really take the biscuit.

Thank God I'm out of this madness.

+1

Sparkingchip said:

Unfortunately the standard of electrical installations in owner occupied UK homes is very low, as I am constantly witnessing first hand.

Agreed ... but best be careful before someone asks where all the piles of bodies are.

It should be an embarrassment for the government if they fail to find enough accommodation for refugees because the UK housing stock is deemed substandard and unfit for purpose by the government themselves, but if it happens we won’t hear about it.

I respect anyone who will do genuinely do unbiased EICRs free of charge for potential hosts, but I suspect there will be many genuine failures.

Deleted out of respect of the main object of this thread!

The only failure of govt is to imagine that legislation alone can drive up standards of workmanship or eliminate the 'run it till it breaks' mentality in relation to national infrastructure.  What is really needed is better education and access to the information to make informed choices.  And of course if there are too many failures to meet the standard, but there is no pile of bodies or hundreds of smouldering ruins  of houses each morning, then maybe that says the bar is set unrealistically high, and we are trying to live at a standard we cannot really reach nor afford.

Remember that in recession the value of life falls, much as it rises as living standards improve, so really one could argue that we should be making things more dangerous, not less, in response to the current economic squeeze.

I am of course slightly tongue in cheek..

Mike.

Ditto to all of that Graham