Gas Safety Certificate out of date by 6 weeks...where do I stand??

clutton_2

folks do seem to have got their knickers in a bit of a twist here - - ok its late, but - the engineer came two weeks ago, and an arrangement was made for yesterday and the agent is now trying to contact him again - efforts are being made - occasionally some of my CORGIS are a bit late if engineers are busy - its not the end of the world. Sure, legally its overdue - but why not call the agent again and ask for an urgent appointment. If you start going to private tenancy officers for something that is already in hand - they will not take the LL to court. You may find that your LL starts wondering about a Section 21 if you appear to be being unreasonable.

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

folks do seem to have got their knickers in a bit of a twist here - - ok its late, but - the engineer came two weeks ago, and an arrangement was made for yesterday and the agent is now trying to contact him again - efforts are being made - occasionally some of my CORGIS are a bit late if engineers are busy - its not the end of the world. Sure, legally its overdue - but why not call the agent again and ask for an urgent appointment. If you start going to private tenancy officers for something that is already in hand - they will not take the LL to court. You may find that your LL starts wondering about a Section 21 if you appear to be being unreasonable.

My highlighting.

Carbon Monoxide poisoning can indeed be the end of some people's worlds.

I may be wrong but my interpretation of what Sarah said was that the CORGI man was contacted 2 weeks ago (ie almost a month after the gas cert had expired) and was due to show this week.

Clutton - it seems you have joined the Premier and Mainwaring bandwagon. Tenants have to remind LLs of their very basic legal obligations?

How much simpler can this be for LLs ( many of whom like to call themselves "professional")?

The law says that all tenanted properties must have a current Gas Safety Certificate, that the LL must arrange annual checks, and that s/he must keep copies of Gas safety certs for 2 years.

If it is a legal requirement then it is reasonable for a tenant to expect it to be done.

As I said - the due date comes round at the same time every year (unless you skimp on your legal obligations) so you have plenty of time to get it booked.

" The law doesn't apply to me" sort of attitude is precisely the sort of behaviour that will result in greater regulation/licensing of all LLs.

Didn't you say in another thread that tenants should pay their rent on time? Now that one is merely a contractual obligation and yet, as a LL, you want it complied with.

Here were talking about non-compliance with gas safety regs - which can result in criminal charges (plus a civil one on behalf of a tenant where appropriate)

Be a bit late getting a coat of paint on or fixing a cupboard door hinge but with gas safety checks/certs, tenancy deposit registration etc? Nope - shoddy, downright unprofessional and against the law.

clutton_2

i take your point tbs - quite right. tenants should not have to remind LLs/LAs that the cert is due. you are right in interpreting the strict letter of the law here.

the OP does says that

""they got a Gas Service engineer to call 2 weeks ago" - so a start was made - albeit a late one - we are all human and occasionally forget things.

simply because a cert is due, does not necessarily mean to say that a gas appliance is suddenly going to start killing folks tho




ouch - me in bed with MW and Premier ????? - heaven forbid .........

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

...ouch - me in bed with MW and Premier ????? - heaven forbid .........

Just wanted to check there Clutton.....;)

SquatNow

sarahf191979 wrote: »

Gas Safety Certificate out of date by 6 weeks...where do I stand??

If I had any doubts about the safety of gas fittings in my rented property, I'd stand... hmmmmm about 50 yards away.

Give or take.

redcar_2

SquatNow wrote: »

If I had any doubts about the safety of gas fittings in my rented property, I'd stand... hmmmmm about 50 yards away.

Give or take.

I thought this too :rotfl:

macster77

6 weeks is not too bad!!! I am a tenant too and the gas cert expired in August 2008. This was only remedied in Dec 08, after a court hearing - there were other issues. I really shouldn't claim ignorance for being a foreigner, but had I known that not having a current gas cert is tantamount to criminal wrongdoing, I would have contracted a CORGI engineer there and then to remedy this!

DawnW

Why not contact LL/LA a week before the due date and ask when to expect a visit? I have had a situation where the tenant did not want to take time off work to let in the gas engineer :eek:

If you get in touch in advance, maybe you can sort out something mutually acceptable? Always worth trying a reasonable approach first (sigh!) LLs are not all unreasonable ogres you know :beer:

tbs624

DawnW wrote: »

Why not contact LL/LA a week before the due date and ask when to expect a visit? I have had a situation where the tenant did not want to take time off work to let in the gas engineer :eek:

If you get in touch in advance, maybe you can sort out something mutually acceptable? Always worth trying a reasonable approach first (sigh!) LLs are not all unreasonable ogres you know :beer:

:rolleyes:
Dawn, it's not about LLs being "ogres" - it's about the fact that it is unequivocally the LL's legal duty to get the gas safety check & certification done. The HSE makes it absolutely clear that, in a residential property, this responsibility cannot be delegated to the tenant. It should be the LL or LA contacting the T two or three weeks before the certificate is due to expire to arrange access well in advance and categorically not the other way round. ( You'll know as a LL that you're expected to try to gain access at least 3 times before seeking access via the court for gas safety checks to be completed in the rare event of a T being "awkward". You'll also know from reading posts on here that the majority of Ts much prefer to arrange to be present when anyone has access to their home)

Why on earth should it be acceptable for LLs to need Ts to "bum-wipe" them on things like this and the need to scheme-register their tenacy deposits et al ? Should the T also remind the LL to pay his buildings insurance on time, to pay his mortgage on time etc...?

The "reasonable approach" is surely for a LL to behave in a professional manner & comply with the gas safety regs *without* being chased up. If they can't do that then they should leave letting property to those who can, and go & work in a capacity in which they have someone to supervise them. Before Blackberries and computers we had these things called diaries - a gas safety cert expiry date is like Xmas & birthdays (albeit less fun) - they come round once a year on the same old date, so plonk it down as a reminder on a date a couple of weeks beforehand. Not that onerous, really.......................


LLs may also like to note that the HSE says:

"You should not assume that an annual service inspection meets the safety check requirement, or that a safety check will, on its own, be sufficient to provide effective maintenance."

ginvzt

We asked out LA for a gas safety certificate recently, as we haven't received one when we moved in. And their answer was - ooh, it is due now, so the engineer will be contacting you. This gives me lots of thoughts with regards if there was one at all until now!!!