Electrical safety in your home

What to do if you think there’s a problem with your electrics

If there’s a burning smell or smoke marks from an electrical socket or fuse board, turn off the power at the main switch on the fuse board, then call us straight away to report it.

If you notice a damaged socket in your home, exposed or damaged wiring, defective switches, or a loss of electricity linked to a fault in your home, please report it to us straight away so we can investigate and fix the issue.

If there's an immediate threat to life such as a fire, always call the emergency services first by dialling 999 from a safe location.

If there’s been a leak and water is coming through a light fitting, do not touch it or switch it on. Even if the light is switched on, do not touch it to switch it off. Try and switch off the power via the circuit breaker or fuse board, if it is safe to do so. Report the leak to us immediately as an emergency repair.

What we do to help keep you safe

We want to work with you to keep you safe in your home. As part of this, we carry out electrical safety checks every five years. It’s important we undertake these checks, as electrics can wear with age.

These checks are called Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICR). They check for:

Any overloaded electrical circuits or equipment
Any potential electric shock risks and fire hazards
Any defective electrical work
Any lack of earthing. Earthing protects you from receiving a serious electrical shock.

What happens if we’re unable to complete your appointment

As your appointment is a critical safety check, and a legal requirement, we need to carry this out.

If we are unable to carry it out at the second attempt, we will leave a missed appointment card and a legal letter. This will explain the next steps with regards to potential legal action that we may take if we cannot carry out this check.

This is not a course of action that we want to take, but it is essential that we are able to carry out this important safety check to your home.

General electrical safety advice

Don’t alter the wiring, sockets or light fittings in your home. If you want to make any changes, please speak to us first
Switch off electrical appliances when you’re not using them
Switch off and disconnect TVs from their power source at night
Make sure all plugs are wired correctly
Check flexes regularly, never use damaged ones and do not run them under carpets or rugs
Never touch switches with wet or damp hands
Never wire more than one electrical appliance into one plug, and do not use adaptors
Do not run any appliances from a light fitting

Electrical appliance safety

If you think one of your appliances is faulty, please check your model and serial number or look for the model data label. You can check if your appliance has been recalled using a tool on the Electrical Safety First website.

Check your appliance here