The Area We Cover, And The Buildings In It
Wimbledon sits in the London Borough of Merton, whose civic centre is on London Road in Morden, and fire and rescue cover comes from London Fire Brigade, with the nearest station on Kingston Road, SW19 1JN, in the brigade's South West command. We work daily in SW19 and SW20, in the part of SW18 on the northern fringe towards Southfields and Earlsfield, and along the SW17 stretch of Plough Lane, where the Wimbledon Grounds development at SW17 0BL sits inside Merton despite its postcode.
The town grew quickly. The railway arrived in 1838, the population was still under 2,700 at the 1851 census, and by 1901 it had passed 40,000. Almost everything between the station and the Village went up in that window, which is why so much of the housing reaches the same point in its wiring life at the same time. Late Victorian terraces and villas dominate Merton Hall Road, the streets around South Park Gardens, and the Pelham Road, Leopold Road, Lambton Road and Vineyard Hill Road conservation areas. Wimbledon Park and the roads off Arthur Road are mostly Edwardian and interwar semis. The 1930s stock runs west through Wimbledon Chase, Cottenham Park and Raynes Park, where houses usually have driveways and original garages.
We have been electricians at 820 Garratt Lane in Tooting since 1957, company number 00595683, and certified by NICEIC since 1962 under its Approved Contractor Scheme and its Domestic Installer Scheme. That base sits at the Summerstown end, effectively on the Merton boundary, so Wimbledon Park is the next neighbourhood over, with the Durnsford Road estate close by and the Village a short drive from our Garratt Lane base. Merton has twenty nine conservation areas, several of them covering streets in and around the town, and around 250 statutorily listed buildings. Meter boxes, external lighting, surface containment, charge point siting and cable runs across a frontage are a consent question before they are an electrical one, particularly at Merton Park and on Copse Hill, Drax Avenue and Bathgate Road.
Rewires, Consumer Units And Fault Finding
Rubber and fabric insulated cable, rewireable fuseboards, no RCD protection and no supplementary bonding in older bathrooms are routine finds in a Wimbledon house untouched since the 1970s. We test first and tell you what genuinely needs doing, because a full rewire is not always the answer and staging the work often is. Boards are installed and certificated to BS 7671 and labelled so the next electrician can read them.
Landlord Certificates And EICRs
A private tenancy in England needs a satisfactory Electrical Installation Condition Report at intervals of no more than five years, or sooner if the previous report says so. Anything coded C1, C2 or FI must be put right within 28 days, with written confirmation afterwards, and a council can impose a penalty of up to £40,000, a figure that rose from £30,000 on 1 November 2025. Our landlord compliance page sets out the duties in full.
Fire Alarm Systems And Detection
Lektrix Installations Ltd is a BAFE Registered Organisation, ID 303447, holding BAFE SP203-1 Fire Detection and Alarm Systems for design, installation, commissioning and maintenance, third party certificated by NICEIC. In practice that runs from mains powered interlinked alarms in a shared house to a panel system with detection in every risk room. The benchmark for existing housing is the LACORS guidance of 2008, which is recognised good practice rather than law, though a licence condition can make it binding, and can ask for more than the guidance does.
Fire Risk Assessments
Since 1 October 2023 every responsible person has had to record the fire risk assessment in full, and the record must name whoever carried it out. Across Wimbledon that covers the common parts of converted houses and purpose built blocks, along with shops, offices, industrial units and licensed HMOs. We produce a complete written assessment with a prioritised action plan. Our fire risk assessment page sets out the scope.
Commercial, Industrial And Three Phase Work
The Weir Road and Durnsford Road estate at SW19 8UG is the main industrial cluster in Wimbledon: builders' merchants, trade counters and warehousing, with racking, mezzanine offices, battery charging and high bay lighting, nearly all three phase and most of it due fixed wire testing on a rolling programme. The town centre offices are a different job. Mansel Court on Mansel Road, SW19 4AA, runs over ground and five upper floors with solar panels, air source heat pumps and EV charging bays, while Tuition House at 27-37 St George's Road, SW19 4EU, is seven storeys of multi tenanted suites where the landlord's common parts and each tenant's own space are tested and recorded separately. Our commercial electrical services cover distribution boards, small power, lighting and periodic inspection.
Fire Risk Assessments And What The Law Requires
We carry out fire risk assessments across Wimbledon and the wider borough, and it is worth being precise about what the law asks. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places the duty on the responsible person, the employer in a workplace, whoever has control of the premises, or the owner, to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk. It applies to non domestic premises and to the common parts of blocks of flats and HMOs, not inside a single private home.
There is no licence, no protected title and no compulsory register for fire risk assessors in England. The Order sets an outcome test instead: a competent person is one with sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to do the work properly. You can delegate the assessment; you cannot delegate the responsibility for it, which is exactly why the record now has to name the person who produced it.
So we are plain about our certification. Our BAFE registration is SP203-1 and it covers fire detection and alarm systems. Fire risk assessment is certificated under a separate BAFE scheme that we do not hold, and we say so before anyone has to ask. We will tell you who is coming and what their training and experience is, so you can satisfy yourself that they are competent and record it. If a building needs an assessor with third party certification or specialist higher risk experience, we will say so and help you find one.
Premises We Assess And Buildings We Work In
Flats above shops are one of the jobs we are called to most often in Wimbledon. The Broadway, Merton High Street, Haydons Road, Kingston Road, Worple Road, Coombe Lane at Raynes Park, and the High Street and Ridgway up in the Village are commercial at ground level with people living above. The Fire Safety Order applies to the common parts and to the commercial premises, and the responsible person for the shop is often not the responsible person for the flats. Agreeing that boundary in writing is usually the first thing an assessment fixes.
Buildings we are in across the town most weeks:
- Converted Victorian and Edwardian houses split into flats
- Purpose built blocks and the new development at Plough Lane
- Flats and offices above shops and local parades
- Licensed HMOs of five or more occupants
- Residential and nursing homes
- Schools, colleges and arts studios
- Shops, restaurants, bars and pubs with rooms
- Trade counters, warehouses and mezzanine offices
Conversion flats are worth setting out on their own. A two- or three way split of an original house has several individual supplies plus a landlord's supply for the common parts, and that landlord's circuit is the one most often missed at inspection time. It also feeds the communal detection and the emergency lighting. The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that the structure, external walls and flat entrance doors of these buildings sit within the Fire Safety Order, which brought much of the converted stock off Wimbledon Hill Road and Arthur Road into scope.
Sleeping risk above a licensed premises is the other local pattern. The Dog & Fox at 24 High Street, SW19 5EA, has twenty five bedrooms over the pub. Historic fabric, public assembly and people asleep upstairs together make for a demanding assessment. Where a building is listed, or where cabling, sounders or signage would be visible from the street in a conservation area, the consent needs agreeing alongside the specification. The residential and nursing homes across Wimbledon are the same problem with less warning time.
HMO Licensing And Article 4 In The London Borough Of Merton
Merton licenses HMOs occupied by five or more people in two or more households across the whole borough. The council also runs an additional licensing scheme for three and four sharers and a selective scheme covering privately rented homes in designated wards, both running from 24 September 2023 for five years, but both cover wards in the east of the borough rather than Wimbledon. Colliers Wood is the one ward in the additional scheme sitting on the edge of SW19, and that scheme also takes in certain converted blocks of flats, which is precisely the stock along the Wandle corridor.
The change that reaches every street here is the Article 4 direction on small HMOs. An immediate direction removing permitted development rights for a change of use from a dwellinghouse to a small HMO took effect in seven eastern wards on 17 November 2022 and was confirmed the following April. From 24 March 2026 the council extended it to the remaining thirteen wards, among them Village, Hillside, Abbey, Merton Park, Cannon Hill, Raynes Park and West Barnes. Creating a new small HMO anywhere in the borough now needs planning permission, and the wiring and the fire safety provision are part of what gets looked at.
A licensed HMO in Wimbledon needs a satisfactory condition report and interlinked detection suited to the building, and the licence conditions can be stricter than the national guidance. We do both halves of that work, which usually means one team on one visit.
What Happens After The Report
A fire risk assessment does not have to end at the report. The action plan is written to the relevant British Standard categories rather than to a product, and the findings that come up again and again across Wimbledon are things we can put right: detection below the grade the building needs, emergency lighting missing or under rated on an escape route, fire doors without intumescent strips, cold smoke seals or self closers, an expired condition report, or no test records at all. The assessment is priced and invoiced on its own. You are free to take the action plan to any installer you choose, and if you would rather we quoted for the remedial work, that is a separate job on a separate invoice.
Charge Points, Driveways And Terraced Streets
Charge point work in Wimbledon splits by street. The 1930s semis at Wimbledon Chase and Raynes Park, and the larger houses on Copse Hill and Drax Avenue, nearly all have driveways or original garages, so the job is a domestic installation with an earthing and load assessment on an older supply. The Victorian terraces nearer the town centre have no off street parking at all, which moves charging into workplace, retail and residential car parks, multi bay installations with load management, metering and a landlord's supply behind them.
Common Questions From Wimbledon Property Owners
Do I need a fire risk assessment for a converted house split into flats in Wimbledon?
Yes, for the common parts. The Fire Safety Order covers the shared hallway, stairs and landings, and since the Fire Safety Act 2021 it also covers the structure, external walls and the flat entrance doors onto the escape route. It does not apply inside a private flat. Even a two flat conversion needs an assessment, recorded in full.
Which council and which fire service cover Wimbledon?
The London Borough of Merton is the local authority, with its civic centre on London Road in Morden. Fire and rescue cover comes from London Fire Brigade, and the nearest station is on Kingston Road, SW19 1JN, in the brigade's South West command. Merton also licenses HMOs and enforces landlord electrical safety.
How often does a landlord in Wimbledon need an EICR?
At least every five years on a private tenancy, or sooner if the previous report requires it. The report goes to an existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection, to a new tenant before they move in, and to the council within seven days of a request. C1, C2 and FI items must be remedied within 28 days.
Does my HMO need a Grade A fire alarm panel?
Not automatically, and no national law requires one. The LACORS guidance of 2008 recommends Grade D LD3, mains powered interlinked alarms on the escape route, for a normal risk shared house of up to four storeys, with extra detection in the kitchen, the lounge and any cellar that carries a risk. Grade A LD2 is the benchmark for shared houses of five or six storeys and for the common areas of bedsit HMOs of three storeys and above. A Merton licence condition can require more, and the licence condition is what binds you.
I want to create a small HMO in Wimbledon. Do I need planning permission?
Yes. Merton's Article 4 direction removing permitted development rights for a change of use from a dwellinghouse to a small HMO applied to seven eastern wards from 17 November 2022 and was extended to the remaining thirteen wards from 24 March 2026. Converting a house to an HMO of any size in the borough now needs permission.
Are you BAFE certificated for fire risk assessments?
No, and we will not imply otherwise. Our BAFE registration is ID 303447 under scheme SP203-1, covering the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of fire detection and alarm systems, third party certificated by NICEIC. Fire risk assessment sits under a separate BAFE scheme that we do not hold, and we tell you so before you book. The legal test set by the Fire Safety Order is competence, not certification.
Can you work on a listed building or inside a conservation area?
Yes, and we plan the consent before the cable. Merton has twenty nine conservation areas and around 250 statutorily listed buildings, concentrated in the Village, at Merton Park and along Copse Hill, Drax Avenue and Bathgate Road. Meter boxes, external lighting, charge point siting and containment across a frontage all need agreeing first.
How much does a fire risk assessment cost?
It is quoted per building rather than from a price list, because a lock up shop and a six storey block are not the same piece of work. Tell us the address, the number of floors, what each floor is used for and whether anyone sleeps in the building, and we will give you a figure after a short conversation.