Landlords Obligations

gettingthere1975

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

We live in a privately rented house, currently 3 months into the second year of tenancy. We havealways dealt with any problems such as repairs where we can and at our cost, In 15 months we have not contacted the landlord other than to confirm rent has been transferred etc. Our Gas Safety cert was due to be renewed back in April, to date it has not been done.

On Saturday our landlord visited unannounced, he was being quite cagey about renewing the gas cert as he "doesnt trust them" and its a "waste of money" however we stated in needed doing.

On sunday we got up and had no hot water or heating, we called in a no gas to the energency gas and they visited and confirmed that there was no problem with the meter and to notify the landlord to come and get a gas safe engineer to repair.

He seems to be saying in a round about way that he will be carrying out the repairs himself. He has asked to come tomorrow to inspect the boiler. I have made it clear that we are not happy for him to do this and that any repair needs to be done by a qualified engineer.

Would just like to know where we stand, if he turns up tomorrow and starts fiddling around with the boiler what do we do ?, if he gets it working do we just leave it at that?

I have to be honest this is really stressing me out, he seems to be happy to make a 400 mile roundtrip to do a botch job when it would probably be cheaper to get a gas engineer in the first place.

Thanks in advance for any replies

Benji

If you call the HSE they can tell you exactly what to do
http://www.hse.gov.uk/GAS/domestic/faqtenant.htm

molerat

Unless he is Gas Safe registered he cannot touch the boiler. He is breaking the law by not having it checked and would be further breaking the law by doing it himself. Lots of good points in the link above including how to report him.

gettingthere1975

Thanks for the replies guys, i have put everything in writing to the landlord re wanting a gas safe engineer to do the work, he now wants to discuss it on the phone, not sure why as looking at the above his obligations are clear.

Does anyone also know how long we can be left without heating and hot water, i know at the moment its not freezing but the nights have been quite chilly and we have 2 small children ( 2 and 3)

G_M

He must fix the heating in 'a reasonble' period of time. There is no definition, it depends on the circumstances: what is wrong, are parts available, is it winter? are engineers booked up or available.....?

ut the LL clearly has to make efforts without delay, and show that he is making efforts.

I would make it clear that unless the LL is GasSafe registered himself (check here) you do not agree to let him attempt repairs. Insist on a GasSafe engineer, and insist on a safety certificate too.

HSE (Gas Safety Certificate rules)

gettingthere1975

The LL used to be a gas engineer and was previously corgi registered, he has been retired a fair while now and he has stated he is not Gas Safe registered. I wouldnt have a problem if he was registered and i had any confidence in him, he botched numerous things in the house including wrapping fuses in ceiling roses in tin foil to stop them tripping ! We only discovered these botches after we moved in hense why we tend to get on and do things properly ourselves.

Will update later tonight once he has telephoned. Thanks for all the replies :-)

gettingthere1975

An interesting little update.

The LL called tonight, it turns out he has added a few extras to the boiler to "help" it function and last longer, he is coming to remove them tomorrow before the Gas Safe engineer gets here tomorrow afternoon, no wonder that didnt get put in writing!

God only knows how it passed the Gas Safe in 2011 as he hasent ben near the house since move in date except a pop in on Saturday!

olly300

gettingthere1975 wrote: »

An interesting little update.

The LL called tonight, it turns out he has added a few extras to the boiler to "help" it function and last longer, he is coming to remove them tomorrow before the Gas Safe engineer gets here tomorrow afternoon, no wonder that didnt get put in writing!

God only knows how it passed the Gas Safe in 2011 as he hasent ben near the house since move in date except a pop in on Saturday!

Go to your nearest DIY store when it opens tomorrow and get yourself a carbon monoxide alarm and fit it that day.

Regardless of whether the boiler gets checked or not as your landlord is a dangerous idiot who doesn't know when he shouldn't meddle you need to ensure he doesn't kill you.

Ghostrider

olly300 wrote: »

your landlord is a dangerous idiot who doesn't know when he shouldn't meddle you need to ensure he doesn't kill you.

I wouldn't go that far - or do you know the LL personally???

He's clearly got a fair bit more experience than most people on the matter if he's been in the buisiness and was previously registered. Ok, so it mayhave lapsed and that may have been a few years, but it's a gas boiler, its not a space shuttle!?

Lets also remember that if the repair that needs doing is water side and not gas side or flues then you don't have to be gas safe registered at all!? SO there's a lot of poor advice being dished out here by people that don't know the full story.

I'd quiz the LL first in EXACLTY what it is he wants to do to the boiler, if he gets funny then tell him you'll be calling a gas engineer at his expense before he comes round.

Ghostrider

molerat wrote: »

Unless he is Gas Safe registered he cannot touch the boiler. He is breaking the law by not having it checked and would be further breaking the law by doing it himself. Lots of good points in the link above including how to report him.

Wrong, that is not true at all!!

I wish people would check the facts before dishing out such advice.

rpc

Ghostrider wrote: »

Wrong, that is not true at all!!

I wish people would check the facts before dishing out such advice.

Failing to have a gas safety certificate is not breaking the law? The post was only part wrong (and not too far wrong).

If the LL wants to do a check to make sure it isn't, for example, boiler settings then that is fine. If he removes the case (which itself could be gas 'work') then I'd be worrying. The OP does not make it sound as though he wants to check it first.