PAT testing for landlords and HMOs across Sunderland

Portable appliance testing, usually shortened to PAT testing, is the inspection and electrical testing of appliances that plug into a socket rather than the fixed wiring of the property. It is a combination of a formal visual inspection and instrument testing: the contractor checks the plug, the fuse rating, the cord grip, the flex, the casing and any obvious signs of damage, overheating or misuse, then tests earth continuity, insulation resistance and, where relevant, functional operation.

It covers appliances you supply, not appliances the tenant brings in. That distinction matters and it is the one most often misunderstood. The washing machine you left in the kitchen, the fridge freezer in a furnished let, the plug in oven, the microwave, the kettle, the vacuum cleaner, the lamps, the electric heater in the hallway and the extension leads in a shared house are all landlord-supplied equipment and all fall within scope. The tenant's own television, games console, hairdryer, phone charger and kitchen gadgets are their property. They are not tested, they are not labelled and they do not appear on your register.

PAT testing is a separate piece of work to an EICR. The EICR examines the fixed installation, meaning the consumer unit, the circuits, the earthing and bonding and the accessories. PAT testing examines the equipment plugged into it. Neither replaces the other, and a satisfactory EICR says nothing about the condition of an ageing washing machine.

There is no blanket statutory requirement for PAT testing in a standard single let in England. Any tradesperson or provider telling you that every rental property must have an annual PAT certificate by law is overstating it. There is no equivalent of the annual gas safety check or the five year EICR cycle for appliances.

What does apply is narrower and still important. Where a landlord supplies electrical equipment with the property, there is a duty to ensure that equipment is safe for the tenant to use. The duty is about the safety of the equipment, not about holding a particular certificate. Testing, recorded properly, is simply the most practical and most widely accepted way of evidencing that reasonable steps were taken. Without a record, the appliance may well be perfectly safe, but you have no way of demonstrating that you checked.

Two other things commonly turn testing from optional into effectively mandatory. The first is HMO licensing: many licence conditions issued by local authorities require appliance testing on a stated interval, and where your licence says so, the licence condition is what you follow. The second is insurance. A number of landlord and commercial policies list a current appliance testing record as a condition of cover, particularly on HMOs and holiday lets, and a declined claim after an appliance fire is an expensive way to discover the clause.

We will not tell you that your property is compliant or non compliant, and we will not advise you on the interpretation of your licence conditions or your policy wording. What we will do is arrange the testing, return a clear itemised record and track the renewal date, so that the evidence exists and is findable when someone asks for it.

The practical answer is that testing matters in proportion to how many appliances you supply and how many people use them.

HMOs. The highest priority. Shared kitchens see heavy, continuous use across multiple households, appliances are used by people who did not buy them and have no attachment to them, and licence conditions frequently require testing. Shared laundry equipment, communal kitchen appliances and the extension leads that appear in every shared house are the items that actually fail. See HMO compliance for the full annual cycle.

Furnished lets. If you supplied it, it is yours to keep safe. A fully furnished flat can easily carry ten to fifteen landlord appliances, several of which will be older than the current tenancy.

Student properties. High turnover, high occupancy, and appliances that take more punishment in one academic year than a family home gives them in five. Testing between tenancies fits naturally into the summer changeover window.

Holiday lets. Guests change weekly, nobody reports a frayed flex, and everything in the property was supplied by you. Insurers take a particular interest here. Pre season testing, alongside the boiler service, is the usual pattern.

A lightly furnished single let with two or three landlord appliances sits at the other end of the scale. Testing at changeover, rather than annually, is often the proportionate approach, and we will say so rather than sell you a yearly cycle you do not need.

Both the EICR and the appliance testing are carried out by the same qualified electrical contractor. That means they can be done in one attendance, which is almost always the better arrangement: one appointment, one access arrangement with your tenant and one invoice.

Access is usually the hardest part of arranging either piece of work. Agreeing a date with a tenant, confirming it, giving the required notice and then having someone actually present at the property is the step that slips, not the testing itself. Combining the two removes an entire round of that, and it removes a second disruption for the tenant. On an HMO with a shared kitchen it also means the contractor is on site once rather than twice with communal areas out of use.

A combined EICR and PAT starting price is published on the price guide. Every figure there is a starting price. Your exact price is confirmed in writing before anything is booked, and no payment is requested at quote request stage.

The contractor works through the property appliance by appliance. Each item gets a formal visual inspection first, because the majority of genuine faults are found by looking rather than by testing: a cracked casing, a scorched plug, a flex pulled out of its grip, a taped repair, the wrong fuse fitted. Instrument testing then follows on each item as appropriate to its class and construction.

Every appliance tested is labelled on the day with the test date, so the record on the appliance and the record on paper agree. Time on site depends entirely on appliance count: a lightly furnished flat may be under an hour, a fully furnished HMO with shared kitchen and laundry equipment will take considerably longer. Someone over 18 needs to provide access, and appliances need to be reachable, so we ask for a note of anything built in or behind a fitted unit before the visit.

The completed register is filed against your property record alongside your other certificates, with the next due date tracked. See renewal tracking and document storage for how records are held.

An appliance that fails is labelled as failed and taken out of service on the day. That is the point of the exercise. It is recorded on the register with the reason, so you have a written account of what was found rather than a bare fail mark.

Where the fault is in the plug, the fuse or the flex, it can often be corrected on the spot and the appliance retested and passed. That is the most common outcome and it is usually the cheapest. Where the fault is internal, where the insulation resistance is outside limits, or where the appliance is old enough that a repair costs more than a replacement, the recommendation will be replacement. We do not carry out appliance repairs beyond that, and we do not supply appliances.

Nothing is repaired, replaced or removed from the property without your written agreement, and no additional charge is applied without it either. Where an appliance is unsafe and cannot be left in use, the contractor will make it safe, unplug it and record that on the register, and we will come back to you the same working day with what was found. Where the failure points at the fixed installation rather than the appliance, for example a socket that is damaged or a circuit that will not hold, that is EICR territory and we will tell you plainly that an inspection of the fixed installation is the right next step. See unsatisfactory EICR remedials for how remedial quoting works.

Because there is no fixed statutory interval, the frequency is set by the risk, the appliance type and anything your licence or insurer specifies. As a working guide, annual testing suits HMOs, student properties, holiday lets and heavily furnished lets. Testing at each tenancy changeover suits lower risk single lets. Newly purchased appliances do not need testing on installation, but they do need adding to the register so the next cycle picks them up.

Whatever interval is agreed, the due date is recorded against the property rather than left to memory. You get a reminder ahead of the date, and if you hold several properties we will align the appliance testing date with the electrical inspection date per property, so each address needs one electrical attendance rather than two on separate calendars.

Every job is carried out by an independently qualified subcontractor. Portable appliance testing, electrical inspection and testing and electrical remedial work are carried out by a qualified electrical contractor. Gas safety checks, boiler servicing and gas remedial work are carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer. EPCs are carried out by an accredited Domestic Energy Assessor. Sunderland Landlord Compliance coordinates the appointment, verifies the subcontractor's qualifications, registration and insurance before instruction, checks the returned paperwork and stores it against your property record with the renewal date tracked. SLC does not employ testers, electricians, gas engineers or assessors and does not carry out the work itself.