Gas Safety fears for tenants raised by new survey

Gas safety

A report on the BBC web-site states that over one third of tenants could be renting a property with an out of date, or even no, gas safety certificate.

As most experienced landlords will know, all properties which have gas appliances, need to get their appliances tested before the tennats go in and annually after that, with a gas installer registered with the Gas Safe Register (formerly CORGI).  Worryingly, the BBC report states that :

• In the last year 18 people died as a result of gas related incidents in the UK, and
• 310 were injured
• In a survey of 1,000 landlords (carried out by www.spareroom.co.uk) 36% said that the legal time limit had elapsed, and
• 26% said that they had never given a gas safety certificate at all
• The Gas Safe Register estimate that 250,000 gas appliances in Britain and the Isle of Man are installed or serviced by illegal fitters each year

These are worrying statistics.  Matt Hutchinson, whose company www.spareroom.co.uk carried out the survey, told the BBC

“One of the main reasons why gas safety checks are not being carried out is a lack of knowledge on the part of the landlord, in particular amateur landlords, many of whom may not even realise they need a gas safety certificate,

“While professional landlords have many years of experience and know the tenancy rules and regulations inside out, amateur landlords who buy second properties to rent out as a long-term investment may not have any previous experience of the rental market.

“This means they may not be aware of their legal obligations, particularly if they have advertised for tenants privately, rather than through a letting agent,” he added.

It is up to those of us who provide information about landlord and tenant matters to keep telling people that  there are gas regulations and that gas appliances MUST be checked every year.

If you are a tenant and you think your landlord has not done any checks, here are some tips from my Landlord Law web-site.