Blanking off feed to a wall lamp.

[GazNicki]

Decided to decorate the living room of our rented home. There are two light fittings in the alcoves of the living room (either side of the chimney breast) that were not working. "Just needs some new blubs, there are some in the Kitchen Cupboard" was the Landlords advice.

New blubs in and they still didn't work. We wasn't fussed as we never needed them anyway.

When I came to remove the lamps today, I found that they were not even connected up. The Live (Red) and the Neutral (Black) wires were cut right down and just the earth was connected to the terminal.

Is this a safe way of making the electrics redundant or not? I don't plan on using the lights or even replacing them for that matter, but I want the electrics to be safe and secure.
How do I go about doing this??

 

[GaryMo]

You mentioned a landlord - he's your first port of call.

Did he give you permission to remove the fittings?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Is this a safe way of making the electrics redundant or not? I don't plan on using the lights or even replacing them for that matter, but I want the electrics to be safe and secure.
How do I go about doing this??

One thing you must not do, assuming the cables are live, is to remove the wall lights and then make good the decoration so that there's no evidence that the cables are there.

• http://www.voltimum.co.uk/files/gb/attachments/niu/l/attachments/c5-43.pdf
• http://web.archive.org/web/20061110111450/http://www.niceic.org.uk/downloads/concealedcables.pdf
• IEE article
• IEE Article on 17th Edition requirements for concealed cables.

Check (carefully!) with your multimeter to see if they are live.

 

[sparkwright]

If you are going to carry out this work you need to confirm where the cables go back to, and if they are live or could ever become live.

You must ensure they are disconnected completely - neutral as well as live.

Were they switched from a wall switch, or did the wall lights have a pull cord fitted on them?

There is a chance they may not even be connected to the lighting circuit, they have been run from a fused connection from the socket circuit.

Otherwise you could attempt to get them working again and consider new wall lights if they are not to your taste.

You have to consider why they were not properly connected in the first place, so make sure what you do is safe.

You should talk to your landlord about this, since he has provided wall lights he should ensure that they work.

Alternatively he should remove them.