How to Keep PAT Testing Records for Appliances You Supply in a Furnished Let

A faded pass sticker, last year’s EICR PDF, or a memory that the kettle was fine is a hidden gap when a tenant asks whether the microwave is safe. PAT testing records for a furnished rental landlord in the UK are a one-page register of kit you supplied plus a dated visual or pass-fail line — not an annual certificate. List only your items, check them at every changeover, write the PAT fields if you test, remove what fails, and stop.

Friday, void week. Ada’s furnished one-bed in Leicester. The incoming tenant asks “is the microwave safe?” She has last year’s EICR — the Electrical Installation Condition Report, the fixed-wiring inspection — and a faded green sticker on the Morphy Richards kettle. The microwave lead is nicked. The tenant’s toaster is already in the hall. In practice a register with “visual OK 11 Sep” and a fail line would have been the file.

The risk is treating PAT — portable appliance testing, a combined inspection and test of moveable electrical kit — as a named annual statute like the five-year EICR. In England a private landlord has no such clock. HSE (accessed 11 September 2026) says the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 do not make testing compulsory, nor annual. Register first. No electrician sales pitch.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

How do you build an appliance register of only what you supply?

Walk the furnished or part-furnished let and write one line per electrical item you or the agent supplied: room, make and model, serial or asset ID, who supplied it. Include kettles, microwaves, fridges, lamps, extension leads and portable heaters. Tenant-owned kit stays off. Unfurnished with no kit means stop.

Do start with landlord- or agent-supplied portable kit. Do not add the tenant’s kettle because it sits on the worktop. Electrical Safety First and GOV.UK electrical-safety guidance (1 November 2025) both say tenants look after their own equipment. A typical mistake is PAT-testing whatever is plugged in. Communal HMO kit the licence holder supplies is on the list. For example, Ada needed five lines; the toaster in the hall was not one.

What does a visual check at changeover actually catch?

Look at the plug, the flex, the joins, the casing, burn marks, taped repairs, and cables trapped under furniture. Electrical Safety First: a visual inspection once a year and/or between tenancies. HSE: most defects are found by visual examination. A nicked lead or cracked plug is already a fail. Date the visual line.

The NRLA PAT guide (24 June 2026) lists frayed leads, bent pins, taped joins, exposed wires, burn marks and trapped cables. HSE’s PAT FAQ says you do not need to be an electrician for a visual if you have enough knowledge. Do write the visual date. Do not skip the walk because last year’s EICR is still in date.

A new boxed fridge still goes on the register. HSE: new kit should not need a formal PAT; a simple visual check is enough. Note “new — visual OK”, the date and the serial. Business Companion (October 2025): new kit must comply with the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 and carry a CE or UKCA mark. If it stays for the next tenant it is second-hand — do the changeover visual again.

When to write a PAT line and stick a label on the item

If you test, write date, who tested, pass or fail, next due, and put a sticker on the kit. HSE: records and labels are not legally required, but they show a scheme exists. Do not invent an annual statute. Frequency is risk-based.

NRLA still says “generally every 6–12 months”. Treat that as trade habit, not law. HSE INDG236 calls it a myth that every portable appliance needs a PAT every year. Combined testing needs a competent person with the right kit. Do write date, tester, pass or fail, and next due. Do set a next-due date on the sticker if you PAT. Do not treat a faded sticker as the file.

What to write when an appliance fails

Unplug it. Take it out of the room. NRLA: remove failed appliances from service until repaired or replaced; do not let tenants keep using them. A fail on a visual is enough. One line: item, room, date, what failed, removed / repaired / replaced, what replaced it, retest date if it came back.

Do not leave a failed microwave in a cupboard for the next tenancy. Do not delete the fail row when the replacement arrives. There is no statutory PAT retention period. Keep the fail line for the life of the item plus a few years after. Ada’s nicked lead was already a fail. Pressure to “leave it just in case” keeps a known-unsafe item in the let. Do file the fail line.

Why does this sheet sit next to the EICR, not instead of it?

The England private-rented electrical regulations are the installation report, not a portable-appliance certificate. A PAT sheet does not close the EICR. Do file this sheet next to the EICR. Do not offer it as “the electrical cert”.

The NRLA electrical-safety page (29 April 2026) says the 2020 England PRS regulations do not place a defined requirement on landlord appliances. The report file is the EICR electrical safety report file. Do not paste those 28-day clocks onto this card. Social landlords have a five-year equipment check — that is not this private let.

If the let is licensed, Housing Act 2004 Schedule 4 requires the licence holder to keep supplied appliances safe and to give a safety declaration on demand. The register backs that declaration. A local licence can name a PAT certificate — that is a licence condition, not a national annual statute.

Sofas are the furniture fire-safety label file. Room grades live on the check-in inventory schedule. Gas is the CP12 file. Alarms are the smoke and CO alarm test log. Workflow: List kit you supply → Visual at changeover → PAT line if you test → Fail = remove and log → File next to the EICR → Stop.

Success bar: you can open the register, the latest visual or PAT line, and any fail/replace date in a minute. Verify that checklist pack, then stop. You listed only kit you supply, left the tenant’s kettle off the sheet, did the changeover visual, and removed what failed. You did not invent an annual PAT statute for England private lets. An IziRento workspace can hold the list. It does not certify appliances.