What is a landlord's gas safety responsibilities? The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 require a landlord to ensure that any gas fitting (and any flue which serves any relevant gas fitting) is maintained in a safe condition.
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) issued a safety letter in October 2008 regarding a potential risk regarding flues for gas boilers which were located in internal walls and which run through areas such as a ceiling void. Clearly such flues cannot be easily visually inspected. Accordingly, the HSE have issued an updated safety notice, and updated guidance has been issued by the Gas Safe Register.
Inspection hatches must now be fitted to properties where the flue is concealed within voids and cannot be visually inspected. The homeowner has until 31 December 2012 to install such an inspection hatch. Prior to then, where there is no inspection hatch and the flue cannot be visually inspected, a gas engineer will be required to carry out a risk assessment as regards potential exposure to carbon monoxide. This will involve:
- looking for signs of leakage of carbon monoxide from the flue
- carry out a flue combustion analysis check
- checking whether there are any audible carbon monoxide alarms installed in the property
For any inspections carried out after 1 January 2013, where the gas engineer is unable to do a visual inspection of a flue, the gas engineer will have to:
- deem that the system is 'at risk' and turn off the gas supply to the boiler so that it cannot be used
The HSE advises all landlords to arrange for the fitting of an inspection hatch for any flue as soon as possible, but at the very latest this should be done by 31 December 2012.
If you would like to chat to a member of our LetLaw team regarding gas safety regulations please get in touch.
