If you are renting your Wokingham property for the first time, there are a number of responsibilities you will have to take on. Becoming a landlord involves having a certain duty of care for your tenants and when it comes to gas safety you will need to make sure that gas pipework, gas appliances and chimneys/flues are maintained and are in a safe condition. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 in Great Britain require gas appliances to be checked annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
It is a straightforward process to ensure compliance with the Gas Safety Regulations but there are three specific duties for landlords.
How long does a landlord’s gas safety certificate last?
To qualify for and renew a gas safety certificate landlords must arrange a safety check every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer. It can be carried out any time from 10 – 12 calendar months after the previous check whilst still preserving the original check expiry date. Where a gas safety check is carried out less than 10 months or more than 12 months after the previous gas safety check, it will have the effect of ‘resetting the clock’ and the new deadline date will now be 12 months from the date of this latest gas safety check.
Record
Once this has been done, you will be issued with a Landlord Gas Safety Record or Gas Safety certificate with details of all the checks that were carried out. It can also be referred to as a CP12 certificate. A copy of the gas safety record must be provided to an existing tenant within 28 days of the check being completed or to new tenants before they move in. Landlords must also keep copies of the record for two years.
Maintenance
Gas pipework, appliances and flues provided for your tenant’s use must be maintained in a safe condition and serviced in line with the manufacturer’s instructions. If these instructions are not available, annual servicing is generally recommended by a Gas Safe registered engineer. There are no formal requirements for landlords to keep maintenance records, however we would recommend filing any relevant documents, so that you can show, if asked, that regular and any necessary repairs have been undertaken.
Thankfully, there are limits to the extent of your gas safety obligations as landlord. You are not required to have any checks carried out, nor are responsible for the maintenance of, any gas appliances owned by your tenant/s.
Questions we sometimes get asked include about gas safety certificates include:
Does a landlord have to have a gas safety certificate and what happens if I don’t have a gas safety certificate?
Landlords are legally required to repeat this gas inspection every year. Letting a property that doesn’t safely use gas is illegal and can be viewed as a criminal offence. Penalties for non-compliance of gas safety regulations are up to £6,000 per offence.
What should be on a gas safety certificate?
The gas safety record should include:
- specific information on the results of the tests carried out