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.
1. Arrange a Gas Safety check every 12 months
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, while 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.
2. Supply the tenant with a copy of the Gas Safety 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.
3. Ensure annual servicing of your gas appliances
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 a landlord. You are not required to have any checks carried out, nor are you responsible for the maintenance of any gas appliances owned by your tenant/s.
A few questions we get asked about gas safety certificates include:
Does a landlord have to have a gas safety certificate, and what happens if I don’t have one?
Landlords are legally required to repeat this gas inspection every year. Letting a property without an up-to-date gas safety certificate is illegal and can be viewed as a criminal offence with a potential prison sentence. Penalties for non-compliance with gas safety regulations are up to £6,000 per offence.
What should be on a gas safety certificate?
The gas safety record should include:
- The date of the service
- The details of the engineer
- The address of your property
- A full list of the appliances that were checked
- Details of any problems identified
- The work carried out to fix them, and whether they passed or failed the tests
- A dated signature from the engineer
- A dated signature from you