UK Landlord Forum / Life

We are new as landlords and have had so many problems as a result of being naive! We let our house to Tenants without being aware of the need of Gas Safety Certificate. 3 months in the renting we realised our fault and got a Gas Safe Engineer to check the boiler.  There is only a boiler in the house, no other gas appliances. The Gas engineer found a CO leak and condemned the boiler. He turned off the gas supply from the main valve and capped the gas pipe to the boiler. The Tenant has reported now the issue with the Health and Safety Executive. What is the best course of action for us now and what is the worst case scenario? If it goes to court would it all come back on us? (unfortunately we didn't take out legal protection)We are so worried and stressed- we would be so grateful for any advice.
Many Thanks

There are just sooooo many health and saftety regulations these days that it is very easy to be caught out by them, simply by being unaware of new legislation being sneaked in.   Which of us hasn't realised something retrospectively at times??  I have a friend who is also in the lettings business, and every so often during conversation we realise that one of us has picked up on something the other has missed.

Only today I have been talking to a trusted electrician I have used before (part p registered, as required), with a view to replacing the bathroom light in one of my properties and checking out a non-functioning storage heater.  I have been told that even the tiny bathroom in our place will have to be zoned, measured etc. to decide on suitability of the new light fittings etc.  I had no idea until then, but it is changing all the time. 

It is good that you acted to rectify the error as soon as you realised you had made it, and I would hope that that will stand in your favour.  It is lucky that the CO leak was found before it became serious too. 

You have perhaps been a tad unlucky that the tenant has now gone to the HSE (should it not have been building regs?) AFTER you had already acted and things had been made safe.     I hope they will see that you have acted in good faith and are doing all necessary work to rectify things before considering court action.  I am not a legal brain though, so maybe someone who knows more will see this soon.

For future reference, these are some useful yardsticks:

Any gas work must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer (you already did this, so OK there).  Regular safety checks are recommended for any gas boilers, both in owner occupied properties and in tenanted ones.  Yearly service is the norm, so consider taking out a service contract if you don't already have one in place.

Any electrical work must be undertaken by a Part P registered electrician (I think that will also include the electrical work involved in fitting your new gas boiler when the time comes, so be on the ball there).  Ask to check out their documentation if unsure.

Those are the big regulations I am aware of, but others may be able to add to it.

Edited to add:  in case you are unaware, you should also fit working smoke detectors and, in the case of a gas supply being present in the property, a working carbon monoxide detector too.    Pop round to test them occasionally.  That should cover you on that score.

As an environmental health officer I would advise the following as it is stuff that I would look for:

Gas check every 12 months  - It IS the /HSE that enforce this,
Electrical check every 5yrs - part p registered.
energy performance certificate for any tenancy started post Oct 08.

In my experience it would be unlikely for the HSE to take any hard action against you if you can prove that it was a mistake.
Hope this helps...

Hello temza,

I've got no personal experience and the quick search I did for HSE prosecution statistics on-line did not offer anything helpful.  However, there's something in the way you write your story which says, to me, that this capping off happened a while ago, the tenant contacting the HSE a bit later and now many weeks have passed whilst you anxiously await to see what the HSE are going to do to you.

And there's nothing in your story about replacing ths boiler for the tenant.

So I might be guilty of doing a 2+2=5 here but: I've got this picture of a freezing cold tenant with no central heating, who can't even have a warm bath or shower because the rubbish boiler tha landlord provided has been condemned.

Please, please tell me I've got the wrong end of the stick.  If I were your tenant and you did not replace the boiler, you'd have more than the HSE to contend with...!

Quote from: Jeremy on February 02, 2012, 09:43:47 PM
Please, please tell me I've got the wrong end of the stick.  If I were your tenant and you did not replace the boiler, you'd have more than the HSE to contend with...!

Oh crikey, me too.     Must admit that I hadn't thought to ask whether or not there was a replacement boiler in yet.  I do hope so.  It is pretty arctic here in Essex at the moment and I wouldn't want to be without my heating.    

Hello Topsyet,

Or should I say Hello Nieghbour, as I'm sitting here in Suffolk.  God's own county (got to throw some controversial comment in once in a while!).  Or Siberian Suffolk as if feels right now!

Arctic Essex here, certainly.  With snow.  I don't like snow.  It is OK until you have to drive in it, but then it is not nice.

You won't be too far from us if you are anywhere near the Essex/Suffolk border.  I am near Saffron Walden.

Hi Topseyt,

Saffron Walden, now there's posh.  We're about sixty miles apart, as I'm in Ipswich.  And my snowman shows no signs of melting at all!

Very little thaw here either, and set to freeze again tonight.  All snowmen are still standing here too. 

and the snow on the pavements have been trodden and compacted into ice, so I'll have another trecherous walk into town tomorrow.

Just out of interest, do people out there clar the snow off the pavements in front of their houses?  I was brought up to always clear away the snow.  The idea being that everyone in the street did it and so the pavement was clear of snow, which then never turned to tretcheous ice, so the old people did not slip and injur themselves.

But there I was on Sunday, one of only a handful of people who cleared their bit of the pavement.  Rather sad, not enough neighbourhood spirit.

Very few of them clear it.  We had a go at ours, but nobody else did.