Landlords, What Are Your Gas Safety Requirements?

Whether you’re a landlord of a residential premises, bed and breakfast accommodation, hotels/hostels, holiday cottages, and caravans or of the like, you are responsible for guaranteeing the safety of your tenants. Listed below are all of the areas that you are responsible for. We hope that this information can help all landlords/tenants located within the Hertfordshire area.

Annual gas safety checks

It is a landlord’s responsibility to ensure that annual safety inspections are undertaken on all of the provided gas-enabled appliances within the premises. They should be tested against the frequency provided within the manufacturer’s instructions. It is UK law to ensure that a Gas Safe Registered heating engineer undertakes these checks.

Regular gas work maintenance

Pipework and chimneys/flues need to be regularly checked and maintained to ensure that there is no leakage of gas throughout the premises.

Maintenance of records

Once the annual gas safety checks have been undertaken, you will be given a certificate that will recognise your compliance with all of the UK gas safety regulations. This record must be provided to existing tenants within 28 days of its completion or make it immediately available to new tenants upon their arrival into the premises. It is important that you keep this record for at least 2 years.

This is what we do at YT Plumbing and Heating – we carry out all of these checks and will provide you with a certificate to recognise your compliance.

Smoke/Carbon monoxide alarms

Since the passing of the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Regulations in 2015, it has been a legal requirement to ensure that a smoke alarm is situated on every floor where there is living accommodation. Additionally, it is also a legal requirement to fit a carbon monoxide alarm in any room where a solid fuel is used – charcoal, wood and peat, for instance.

What are you not responsible for?

As described above, whilst it is necessary to undertake annual safety checks on all of the gas-enabled equipment that you have supplied into the property, you do not necessarily need to carry out safety checks on gas-enabled equipment that the tenants have supplied themselves. However, it might be best practice to do this so you can ensure the safety/maintenance of the property itself.  

If you’re a landlord located within Hertfordshire or the surrounding area and are due a gas check, give us a call and we’ll be more than happy to give you a hand! You can contact us directly on 07877 178198 or 01438 557842 or you can email us at ytplumbingandheatin@yahoo.com. We’ll look forward to your call.