Landlord gas safety service

Stillhangingin

Hope everyone is well!

My tenant was scheduled to have the yearly gas safety service on the 06.04.2020 as part of b/g cover that we have.

This appointment has now been cancelled by b/g to free up appointments for vulnerable people (which I agree with) but I wondered if anyone could advise where this would leave me legally.

The gas safety service is due by the 17.04.2020 so should I just wait until b/g can offer another service appointment or should I perhaps try and arrange one with a local gas engineer?

Thanks for your help 

theartfullodger

Service doesn't legally matter , but Gas Safety cert does.

Perhaps see if a local gas person can do it.  Strangely they are usually much less likely to find fatal faults which BG say needs a complete new boiler: Funny that!  Probably do service same time.

When does current cert run out?  Does tenant have a copy?

Stillhangingin

Thanks for your reply

Sorry I meant the gas safety check, yes tenant does have a copy of this and the current one is valid until the 17.04.2020

greatcrested

The answer is to make all reasonable efforts to get a safety check done. But where this is impossible, HSE will not prosecute. A more typical example is where a tenant refuses the engineer access. Provided the LL can show he has written to the tenant several times requesting access for the engineer, and been denied, HSE will consider this as reasonable.

In the current situation, if it turns out that so many engineers are self-isolating/not working etc that the LL cannot get the inspection done, that would seem reasonable. But make sure you keep a record of the names/details & date of contact of each engineer who declines the job so that you can show you took all reasonable steps to get it done.

edit:

Is the landlord able to access a property for safety checks?

The contract you make with your tenant should allow you access for any maintenance or safety check work that needs to be done. You must not use force to enter the property. Further information is provided in regulation 39 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.

A landlord has to show that they took all reasonable steps to comply with the law. HSE recommends the following actions and strongly advises that a record be kept of all correspondence with the tenants:

• Leave the tenant a notice stating that an attempt was made to complete the gas safety check and provide your contact details.
• Write to the tenant explaining that a safety check is a legal requirement and that it is for the tenant’s own safety. Give the tenant the opportunity to arrange their own appointment.
• HSE inspectors will look for repeated attempts to complete the gas safety check, including the above suggestions; however the approach will need to be appropriate to each circumstance. It would ultimately be for a court to decide if the action taken was reasonable depending upon the individual circumstances.

from: https://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqlandlord.htm