Gas Safety and EICR

BACKTOBACK

Just after opinions please. I am living in privately rented accommodation which does not have either a gas safety check or Electrical Installation Condition Report. I have been here for around 11 years. Landlord is not interested and just threatens eviction all the time. Apart from this the property is okay and nothing else really available in the area.

Its a great idea setting these laws but with no legal checks or registration any enforcement leaves the tenant in a difficult position.

If for example i owned a car and did not tax it i would soon receive letters, or watched live tv without a license then the enforcement guys would be round.

So would it be worthwhile setting up a petition for a type registration of private landlords, who would have to enter basic legal requirements. Would not mean any extra work for the decent landlords out there and would help filter out the others and make a lot more properties legal.

Any thoughts...

Snookie12cat

BACKTOBACK said:

Just after opinions please. I am living in privately rented accommodation which does not have either a gas safety check or Electrical Installation Condition Report. I have been here for around 11 years. Landlord is not interested and just threatens eviction all the time. Apart from this the property is okay and nothing else really available in the area.

Its a great idea setting these laws but with no legal checks or registration any enforcement leaves the tenant in a difficult position.

If for example i owned a car and did not tax it i would soon receive letters, or watched live tv without a license then the enforcement guys would be round.

So would it be worthwhile setting up a petition for a type registration of private landlords, who would have to enter basic legal requirements. Would not mean any extra work for the decent landlords out there and would help filter out the others and make a lot more properties legal.

Any thoughts...

They have this already in Wales, its called Rent Smart Wales and it is supposed to do exactly what you say but in reality all that happens is the good landlords sign up and the bad ones do not, and there is no way for people to know who is signed up and who is not unless the tenants report them. It just does not work and costs landlords more money in which increases rents. Obviously no scheme would be free where landlords are involved.

You can report your landlord for no GSC you can report them here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqtenant.htm
He will likely know it was you though and evict you Although, can he actually get a court order if he has failed basic safety checks?

Hedgepigs

Snookie12cat said:

You can report your landlord for no GSC you can report them here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqtenant.htm
He will likely know it was you though and evict you  

Although the S21 would be invalid, which would slow things down somewhat. Still, if it was me I'm not sure I'd want to rock the boat either

theartfullodger

Scotland has had Landlord registration for over 10 years.  Helps towards track down the rogues, the crooks and the cheats 

Anyone, 24/7,can check who is landlord, name and address.  Plus lookup all tribunal (replaced courts for most property rental stuff) decisions on landlords, agents and tenants, again free 24/7. A useful step to see if someone has a dodgy history.

Obviously there are still crooks.

Good news for you is that without gsc any section 21 notice (Thatcher's evict for no reason at all cunning plan) will be invalid so he probably can't evict.

Wonder what else he's "forgotten" to do.  I'd grass him up to HMRC over undeclared rent income.  

Deposit protected? (Penalties to tenant, ££££, if not)

I hates crooks & cheats, 

Come on England, catch up!

Section62

BACKTOBACK said:

Its a great idea setting these laws but with no legal checks or registration any enforcement leaves the tenant in a difficult position.

The tenant just needs to make contact with the relevant authorities... they will take it from there.

But some tenants may be quite happy about the 'optional' nature of this process.  If (generally) we switched from the current system to one where landlords (and tenants?) had to proactively register, there would be losers among the winners.

I'm not condoning dodgy landlords in any way, just pointing out that some tenants might be completely happy with the arrangement they have with their landlord, and may be disadvantaged by a change in public policy.

BACKTOBACK said:

....or watched live tv without a license then the enforcement guys would be round.

They are in fact just salespeople. And you are quite likely to get several years of sales letters sent to the address before a salesperson visits.  They also don't know whether or not someone is watching live TV - the trigger for the process to start is the property appearing on a database as one with no active licence.

I say that not to have a lengthy discussion about the TV licensing system - but to make the point that anywhere you have a form of compulsion to do something, you also need to design an effective (and legal and fair) method of enforcement. And have somebody pay for it.

TV licensing sales are pursued with some passion because there is money (profit) to be made for all of those involved, except the licence fee payer (and non-payer if they get caught breaking the law).

Where would the money come from to run some new form of landlord registration?  What is the 'trigger' event which would allow effective enforcement?

Otherwise you are reliant on tenants picking up the phone or going online to report their rogue landlord.  Which sounds remarkably like where we are now.

BACKTOBACK said:

So would it be worthwhile setting up a petition for a type registration of private landlords, who would have to enter basic legal requirements. Would not mean any extra work for the decent landlords out there and would help filter out the others and make a lot more properties legal.

Any thoughts...

I'd challenge the notion that there wouldn't be extra work for the 'decent landlords'.  All landlords would need to register/licence their properties (where schemes are not already in place) and keep their registrations up to date.  That can't be a zero-work /  cost-neutral change.

In theory it sounds good, but will it stop rogue landlords whose tenants are completely happy with their current arrangements?

What improvements would be achieved for the costs involved, and are there better ways for that money to be spent?

tacpot12

BACKTOBACK, I'm concerned about your safety. If there has been no gas safety inspection for 11 years, you should forget about landlord registration and get the gas appliances checked and serviced yourself as a priority. If you don't have a working Carbon Monoxide detector, get one tomorrow.

If the gas engineer asks if there is a landlord safety certifcate, I would suggest that you either say you don't know, or that you know there isn't one, but that you don't want to lose your home so you don't want the landlord reported.

This leaves you with the slight problem of what to do if the engineer condems an appliance.  The only thing you can really do is confess that you have had the appliances serviced because you were concerned for your safety. 

I'm sorry that your landlord has such a cavalier attitude to your safety. 

london21

You might need to start looking for alternative accommodation if unsafe.
Gas safety is essential to be done yearly.
Has any gas safety been done in the last 11 years?
As the above poster mentioned, might be worth paying to get a gas safety done ASAP just to ensure no safety issues such as carbon monoxide etc. 

canaldumidi

Forget the petition and submit form LGSR1 to HSE regarding the gas.

Buy yourself a carbon monoxide detector.

Report lack of EICR to council:

Most councils have a private rented housing team.

You can contact this team if your landlord won't arrange electrical safety checks or carry out work needed after an inspection.

This team may refer you on to the environmental health team who must take action if there's a safety problem in your home.

You should be able to find contact details on your council website, usually in the housing section.

Without the gas report, you cannot be evicted via a S21 Notice- only a S8 Notice eg for rent arrears.

Even with a late gas report, a S21 may fail. See Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz. Central London County Court. 2 February 201.

Pixie5740

As Artful says, landlord registration has been around in Scotland for over 10 years. I am registered myself and used the lack of registration to report my own rogue landlord to the local council who sent her a letter asking her to register ohhhhh. It was still down to me as the tenant to report the bawbag. 

I do remember a friend who was studying and renting in Nottingham years ago reporting his landlord to the HSE, or whatever body was in place at the time, and they acted pretty damn quick fining the landlord which ended up being quite expensive as he had over 10 properties and no GSC for any of them. Oops. 

Pixie5740

Hedgepigs said:

Snookie12cat said:

You can report your landlord for no GSC you can report them here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqtenant.htm
He will likely know it was you though and evict you  

Although the S21 would be invalid, which would slow things down somewhat. Still, if it was me I'm not sure I'd want to rock the boat either

Would a Section 21 be invalid? The OP has been there for 11 years so the original tenancy would pre-date the Deregulation Act 2015. Unless the OP has signed a new agreement since 1st October 2015 the Act will not apply and the lack of GSC will not invalidate a Section 21. 

BACKTOBACK

tacpot12 said:

BACKTOBACK, I'm concerned about your safety. If there has been no gas safety inspection for 11 years, you should forget about landlord registration and get the gas appliances checked and serviced yourself as a priority. If you don't have a working Carbon Monoxide detector, get one tomorrow.

Thank you for all the replies, some interesting points discussed. I have bought a carbon monoxide monitor and there has been approximately two gas safety checks completed in the 11 year period. The last one expired a long time ago