Safety certificates for appliances when buying a house?

cakster

What's normal when buying a house? Should you get a safety certificate for ALL the gas appliances in a house? Do you legally have to be be furnished with one?

With our house purchase we got a home owner/landlord's gas safety certificate...the boiler was on it but the gas cooker was not. Simply absent from the list.

Does anyone know legally what has to be on that certificate? I wasn't aware that gas safe technicians could pick and choose what appliances to put on the certificate, nor that home owners could tell the gas technician what appliances to check and which to tell them to not bother with (as happened in our case).

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks

maisie_cat

The homeowner/landlords certificate is the one issued from a boiler service and isn't even mandatory for a private owner. Most people (including me) do it because it's a condition of my boiler's 5 year warranty. There is no requirement for a gas cooker or other appliance to be checked for a private owner, only a landlord. The gas safe engineer will check what he or she is asked to check.

Mossfarr

It is not a legal requirement to produce a gas safety certificate when selling a house. It is only a legal requirement when the house is rented out so the fact that the cooker is not on it is irrelevant - maybe the previous owners had originally planned to take it with them?

martindow

In rental properties there are legal regulations but when buying there are no requirements. As buyer you are free to get someone in to check gas appliances which you would pay for - caveat emptor! Unless something has raised a suspicion that there is a problem, most people would not bother.

Whatever you choose to do buy a CO monitor unless one is fitted already. Faults can develop at any time and it is a cheap protection to keep everyone in the house safe.

[Deleted User]

Presumably the engineer can't legally call it a "landlord's gas safety certificate" if it excludes the cooker then?

Car1980

You can ask your solicitor to ask the other side for one. They might say no and you would have to pay for it yourself.

Hedgehog99

You should receive a building regs form for a gas boiler.

davidmcn

Car1980 wrote: »

You can ask your solicitor to ask the other side for one. They might say no and you would have to pay for it yourself.

Judging from the OP's other posts, they have already completed their purchase and have encountered a (fairly trivial) repair needing done to their cooker.

The difference is of course that as owner you're free to carry out whatever repairs/improvements you like, whereas a tenant (generally) isn't allowed to start meddling with the gas appliances.

davidmcn

jack_pott wrote: »

Presumably the engineer can't legally call it a "landlord's gas safety certificate" if it excludes the cooker then?

It's the landlord who has the obligation to point the engineer at all the appliances and obtain the certificates.

Mr.Generous

cakster wrote: »

What's normal when buying a house? Should you get a safety certificate for ALL the gas appliances in a house? Do you legally have to be be furnished with one?

With our house purchase we got a home owner/landlord's gas safety certificate...the boiler was on it but the gas cooker was not. Simply absent from the list.

Does anyone know legally what has to be on that certificate? I wasn't aware that gas safe technicians could pick and choose what appliances to put on the certificate, nor that home owners could tell the gas technician what appliances to check and which to tell them to not bother with (as happened in our case).

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks

No certificate required for selling. But if there is one ...

All gas appliances have to be on the certificate, presumably the gas cooker was disconnected at the time of the inspection. Very easily done if its on a hose.

A gas hob is a different matter, it should be connected with copper pipe and have an isolation valve. If you have a gas hob that has been added since the gas safe cert issued I would ask for the installers gas safe id.

A free standing gas cooker is connected with a bayonet to a rubber hose if you get my drift! A built in gas oven can be connected the same way, a hob cannot. (I've seen a few hobs on rubber hoses though.)

Boilers do not have to come with any type of certification, never had any yet on the houses we buy to renovate. I suspect a newer boiler would, and if you had the certification you would provide it, but as for it being a requirement upon sale never come across it.

You can always get your own gas safety check done, they offer great peace of mind for the cost.

On all renovations we get a gas and electrical safety certificate whether the property is for resale or rental. Well worth the money, buyers and buyers solicitors / lenders like such re-assurance imo.

cakster

davidmcn wrote: »

Judging from the OP's other posts, they have already completed their purchase and have encountered a (fairly trivial) repair needing done to their cooker.

Correct, apart from the fairly trivial bit! The repair was anything but trivial. It took an entire day.