Question

Gas Safety (England) | Landlord Responsibility for Repairs and Maintenance (England)

Gas safety

24 Mar 2017 | 2 comments

A landlord who has started to manage his own properties has asked me to find him a tenant. The landlord does not leave a cooker in the property as he states he does not want to be responsible for the upkeep of the gas cooker. My concern is if the tenant fits a cooker himself or not carried out by gas safe engineer and there is an accident ( I can’t see tenants having their own insurance, even for belonging) would the landlord be held responsible?? Surely the LL should at the start of each tenancy would get a gas cert engineer to sign off the fitting of the cooker, or should he check with the tenant as to who fitted the cooker and whether they have that piece of paper.
Plus the yearly inspection would the landlord be responsible for having the gas cooker certified even though he doesn’t own the cooker. Perhaps I’m being too anal??
One of my properties on an inspection it was noted that the tenant had moved my cooker out into the utility and had her own (lovely cooker) fitted, I then paid myself to get this certified and added onto the yearly gas check, thus covering my back.
I want to advise this LL of his responsibilities.
p.s previous agents had no problem finding him a tenant and he states that they have never mentioned their concerns over leaving them to supply and fit their own cooker.
Thanks

Answer

2 Comments

  1. guildy

    In the regulations, a gas appliance is excluded from the landlords duty where it’s:

    an appliance which the tenant is entitled to remove from the relevant premises

    Therefore, the landlord doesn’t need to have the tenants appliance checked.

    As a condition of them putting in a gas cooker, you could insist on seeing paperwork which contains as a minimum the gas safe register number of the engineer.

  2. JungleProperty

    This is an article I wrote on our blog some time ago that covers this topic:

    If a tenant has their own gas appliance that the landlord has not provided, then the landlord has responsibilities for parts of the associated installation and pipework but not for the actual appliance.

    There are some good practice measures that a landlord could adopt with appliances that tenants own:

    At the start of the tenancy, advise the tenant of any flues or chimneys that are unsuitable for the installation of a gas appliance. You may also wish to consider regulating the installation of any appliance by a tenant through the conditions of the tenancy agreement.
    If a tenant installs a heat producing appliance (e.g. fire) in the property ensure you are provided with a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate.
    If a tenant installs a flueless gas cooking appliance (such as a cooker or hob) in the property ensure you are provided with a Declaration of Safety Certificate.
    Free-standing cookers connected by a flexible connector (bayonet fitting), are not considered to be ‘readily movable’, but can be moved, temporarily, eg to clean the space they normally occupy; this type of activity is not regarded as ‘work’ within the meaning of these Regulations. Any other type of installation/reinstallation is regarded as gas work and must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
    Send a reminder to the tenant that their appliances should be serviced and checked for safety each year by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and where possible, offer to include these (at reasonable cost) within gas safety maintenance undertaken on your behalf.
    It is also recommended to include all flues (eg chimneys) connected to gas appliances within your landlord’s gas safety check, even where they do not serve appliances provided by the landlord. This may also help to fulfil other legal duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

    The article is largely based on HSE guidance here http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqlandlord.htm#appliances

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