CPA Bulletin

www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > February 2019 57 Q&As: 2 I am hoping you may clarify the position when it comes to registering a new item of plant. We bought it from the manufacturer, who had taxed it. However, we have received a letter from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau informing us that it needs to be insured. If it’s going on a new building site where there aren’t any public roads, does the plant still need to be insured? a No, it does not. However, when any item of plant is taxed, it also needs to be insured. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) database is connected to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau’s Database - so when an item of plant is taxed but not insured, you will receive a letter querying this discrepancy. It will be assumed that if the plant is taxed, your intention will be for you to use it along the public highway, and so it must be insured. If your intention is to not to have it travel along the public highway, then you must obtain a Statutory Off-Road Notice (SORN) for it. We have an employee who has complained that he received his payslip late, i.e. after he has been paid, and that as an employer we should circulate payslips before the employees have been paid. Is he correct? a The employee is correct. Under section 8(1) of the Employment Rights Act (ERA) 1996, it states that an employee must be given their payslip / statement on or before the point their payment of wages or salary is made to them, and not afterwards. The information which an itemised payslip / statement must include is set out in section 8(2) of the ERA. It requires the employer to provide: • The total gross amount of the employee’s wages or salary. • The amounts of any variable and / or fixed deductions from that gross amount and details of the purposes for which they are made. • The net amount of wages or salary payable, i.e. the actual amount the employee will receive; and • Where different parts of the net amount are paid in different ways, the amount and method of payment of each part-payment. How often do we legally require a site visit for an Appointed Person? a The answer is that LOLER does not specify any particular frequency, as the need for the Appointed Person (AP) to visit site will depend on: • The complexity of the lift; and, • The quantity; and, • The quality of the information about the site and lift with which the AP has been provided. The need to visit site during planning and carrying out a lift, and the number of visits, is a decision for the Appointed Person, taking account of the risks involved. If the shredder has been on site for over three weeks, then an inherent fault is unlikely to be the cause. A machine with an inherent fault is more likely to occur within the first few days after it has arrived on site, not a few weeks later. A more plausible answer is an error by the customer’s operator. Whether the cause of the fire was due to the operator failing: • to carry out the daily / weekly inspections; or, • to notify that there was a problem with it, but continued to use it anyway; or, • to properly clean it out at the end of the day, and so the fire started from the combustible material left inside it. The customer is responsible for any loss or damage to the shredder during the hire period, as per clause 13(b) of the Model Conditions. If the loss adjuster wishes to maintain that there was an inherent fault with the shredder, then the onus is on the customer (or his representatives) to prove this. a We had hired out a shredder on a self- drive basis under the Model Conditions. Themachine had been on site for over three weeks, when it caught fire at the end of one working day. The customer’s loss adjuster is claiming that it had an inherent fault, thereby avoiding any responsibility for the loss. Do you feel that could be the case, or do you feel there is another reason? It is a rare occurrence for us to have a machine that is damaged/unrepairable whilst out on hire under the Model Conditions, so we just want to check what value we should set for a replacement value. a If the item is hired out under the CPA’s Model Conditions, then the replacement value is set at the market price. If the customer disputes the value you place on the item, then seek confirmation from the manufacturer or dealership. Once confirmation has been received, then you should pass that along to your customer. Meanwhile the customer will incur on-going idle-time charges (two-thirds hire rate), whilst this is being resolved.