How safe is a GAS tank

totallyconfused1234

Hi All, I am about to reserve a 1 of 2 small properties on a new build estate.

The house has a small garden, I have been told that the developer will allow me to have an even bigger garden for an extra charge. 

Problem is the house that will get a bigger garden (its end terrace)  with an increase of 3 meters of garden on 1 side. 

Will have a bulk tank LPG tank through Flogas, 3m from the house the tank will be buried, and will serve 10 houses.

The house with bigger garden is really good value for the area, but I dont have any experience or knowledge  with LPG tanks  -

1. How safe are they, are leaks a common thing , 
2. Will I be inhaling the fumes 
3. could they explode. 
4. Will i be sleeping next to a  bomb ?
5. If I were to sell 3-5 years from now will a potential buyer be put off by living net to a gas tank ?

Can anyone offer any personal experience advice ?

 I just dont want to feel uncomfortable in my house  if I were to buy it 

 Thank you so much 

user1977

How many times have you heard of mains gas causing an explosion?

How many times have you heard of a domestic LPG tank exploding?

400ixl

I'd be more asking who has responsibility for maintaining the shared tank, who is insuring it, who will pay to replace it in the future, who has rights to access it and what notice (if any) do they have to give, is it allowed to be in a fenced off and secured area of your garden?

Section62

totallyconfused1234 said:

The house has a small garden, I have been told that the developer will allow me to have an even bigger garden for an extra charge. 

Problem is the house that will get a bigger garden (its end terrace)  with an increase of 3 meters of garden on 1 side. 

Will have a bulk tank LPG tank through Flogas, 3m from the house the tank will be buried, and will serve 10 houses.

I would decline the offer.

They are asking for extra money for the householder to take on the risk, responsibility, and hassle of having a gas storage tank, with very little real benefit.

You've answered question 5 yourself - you are having doubts, and whilst the physical risks from the tank aren't significant, and there will be people who don't care about them, the doubts you are expressing will be shared by a percentage of your future potential buyers, so the outcome will be the same.  Added to which, the property will no longer be 'new'.

totallyconfused1234

400ixl said:

I'd be more asking who has responsibility for maintaining the shared tank, who is insuring it, who will pay to replace it in the future, who has rights to access it and what notice (if any) do they have to give, is it allowed to be in a fenced off and secured area of your garden?

my boundary will be separated from the tank, though it will be 3M next to my garage, I will not be responsible for it - im assuming as residents of the estate we will all need to be  responsible ?

totallyconfused1234

Section62 said:

totallyconfused1234 said:

The house has a small garden, I have been told that the developer will allow me to have an even bigger garden for an extra charge. 

Problem is the house that will get a bigger garden (its end terrace)  with an increase of 3 meters of garden on 1 side. 

Will have a bulk tank LPG tank through Flogas, 3m from the house the tank will be buried, and will serve 10 houses.

I would decline the offer.

They are asking for extra money for the householder to take on the risk, responsibility, and hassle of having a gas storage tank, with very little real benefit.

You've answered question 5 yourself - you are having doubts, and whilst the physical risks from the tank aren't significant, and there will be people who don't care about them, the doubts you are expressing will be shared by a percentage of your future potential buyers, so the outcome will be the same.  Added to which, the property will no longer be 'new'.

I wont be responsible for the tank - im assuming it will be a joint responsibility by the residents ?

totallyconfused1234

user1977 said:

How many times have you heard of mains gas causing an explosion?

How many times have you heard of a domestic LPG tank exploding?

Mains gas - ive heard of a few - 

LPG tank - I only know of 1 where someone tried to remove an old tank?  have you heard of any ?

Section62

totallyconfused1234 said:

Section62 said:

totallyconfused1234 said:

The house has a small garden, I have been told that the developer will allow me to have an even bigger garden for an extra charge. 

Problem is the house that will get a bigger garden (its end terrace)  with an increase of 3 meters of garden on 1 side. 

Will have a bulk tank LPG tank through Flogas, 3m from the house the tank will be buried, and will serve 10 houses.

I would decline the offer.

They are asking for extra money for the householder to take on the risk, responsibility, and hassle of having a gas storage tank, with very little real benefit.

You've answered question 5 yourself - you are having doubts, and whilst the physical risks from the tank aren't significant, and there will be people who don't care about them, the doubts you are expressing will be shared by a percentage of your future potential buyers, so the outcome will be the same.  Added to which, the property will no longer be 'new'.

I wont be responsible for the tank - im assuming it will be a joint responsibility by the residents ?

So the tank won't be in the land you'd own?

In which case, where does the extra land come from, and what will happen if this property owner doesn't buy it?

totallyconfused1234

Section62 said:

totallyconfused1234 said:

Section62 said:

totallyconfused1234 said:

The house has a small garden, I have been told that the developer will allow me to have an even bigger garden for an extra charge. 

Problem is the house that will get a bigger garden (its end terrace)  with an increase of 3 meters of garden on 1 side. 

Will have a bulk tank LPG tank through Flogas, 3m from the house the tank will be buried, and will serve 10 houses.

I would decline the offer.

They are asking for extra money for the householder to take on the risk, responsibility, and hassle of having a gas storage tank, with very little real benefit.

You've answered question 5 yourself - you are having doubts, and whilst the physical risks from the tank aren't significant, and there will be people who don't care about them, the doubts you are expressing will be shared by a percentage of your future potential buyers, so the outcome will be the same.  Added to which, the property will no longer be 'new'.

I wont be responsible for the tank - im assuming it will be a joint responsibility by the residents ?

So the tank won't be in the land you'd own?

In which case, where does the extra land come from, and what will happen if this property owner doesn't buy it?

thank you for coming back to me, Ive attached a picture,  the blue is where the underground tank will be.

From the red line straight down, that is what the garden would be without the additional land, the developer owns the additional land as well, according to them since it's an end house they can add the additional land on if we would like it.
it is not free, it will add on an additional £2500. additional land is the dotted red.

The garden width is currently 7M - agent has just come back to me and said with the extra land, this would make the width 15m.

The house goes almost right up against the boundary / fence(red line)  as you can see the tank is right next there, I like the idea of the extra garden, but the safety of gas scares me, even though I wont be maintaining it. 

thanks so much for your  help 



     

pinkteapot

I have an underground bulk LPG tank so to answer a few questions....

They don't explode, and they don't leak fumes. Every time they're filled the delivery person from Flogas will do some checks to make sure it's still OK. 

I would expect Flogas to be responsible for maintenance. If it was your individual house's tank, they definitely would be because that's how it works (supplier owns and is responsible for the tank). I'm assuming it's the same when it's a shared service for multiple houses, but you could check with the developer.

The supplier owns the tank and is responsible precisely because you're talking about a tank to store a large volume of gas. It's perfectly safe if looked after properly, but to make sure it's looked after properly the supplier who knows what they're doing takes care of it. It's not like a heating oil tank where the homeowner owns it and can have different companies fill it each time.

My tank is under my front garden, right in front of the house (well, 3m out as required). I don't lose sleep over it being there. 

Ours is a 2100 litre tank and needs filling roughly every 6-9 months, depending on how much of that period is over winter when gas usage is obviously higher. You could ask for the capacity of that tank if you want some idea of how often there'd be a delivery lorry making a noise outside your house. 

To make you aware in general for this estate... LPG is traditionally more expensive than mains gas so budget for higher bills if you've only ever been on mains gas. 50-100% more per kWh depending on which estimate you read. However, in the current energy crisis LPG hasn't risen by anywhere near as much as mains gas, so that difference has shrunk. In fact, Calor (our supplier) still haven't put our price up that we've been paying for three years now.

Also, be aware that a lot of heating engineers aren't LPG-boiler-qualified. It's just a bit more of a pain to find a GasSafe registered engineer when you need them to be LPG-registered, as there's fewer of them. But they are about. 

Oh, and ask (whichever house you buy) if the tank will be on a remote telemetry system (meaning Flogas will monitor the level in it and automatically deliver when it's getting low). We have this, and it means having LPG is no different to mains really - we don't have to look out for the tank running low and place an order or anything. Again, I would assume for a shared tank they'd use this system, rather than relying on someone checking the gauge.

Finally (sorry), underground tanks have a lifespan of around 30 years and replacing them isn't cheap because of the groundworks required to dig them out then re-landscape over the top. Is there a service charge on this property? I'd expect a system for some sort of fund to be built up over time in readiness for this cost. 

sheramber

There must be thousands of people with LPG tanks in their garden. 

There are many rural areas with no mains gas supply.