Volume 54 | Issue 6 | June 2016
Landlords breaching the rules on gas safety checks
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New research has uncovered a worrying number of landlords who are unaware of their responsibilities to carry out gas safety checks in their properties using a Gas Safe registered engineer. Research carried out by British Gas has revealed that one in five part-time landlords – people whose rental properties are not their main source of income – have either failed to have a gas safety check carried out on their property in the last year, or have used a contractor who was not Gas Safe registered. All landlords, even those providing short term lets, have a legal responsibility to use a Gas Safe registered engineer and for the check to be recorded in detail on a Landlord Gas Safety Certificate (CP12). However, 28% of the landlords surveyed were not aware that such checks had to take place once a year, and 35% thought that non-compliance meant a £1000 fine. In reality, it could lead to a criminal record, an unlimited fine or even imprisonment. British Gas says gas safety checks pick up a range of problems, including faulty boilers, and are vital in helping to prevent gas leaks, explosions and carbon monoxide poisoning. “I’ve visited properties and seen unsafe appliances which either haven’t been serviced
Short term lets at risk of gas safety breaches
in years or have been installed by illegal gas fitters,” comments British Gas engineer Sheena Anker. “Worryingly, tenants are often oblivious to the danger they are in. To stay safe, tenants should ask landlords for a copy of the Gas Safety Certificate following a check from a Gas Safe registered engineer.” The Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC) has highlighted a recent spike in fines for landlords who breached key rules, saying it’s time for the private rental sector to take gas safety more seriously.
AIIC has identified a number of cases where landlords breached gas safety regulations, including a landlord in Plymouth who was fined over £11,000 for letting a property which had a dangerous gas boiler. The landlord also failed to provide gas safety certificates for his numerous properties on several occasions. In another case, a landlord was handed a suspended six-month prison sentence after he put off gas safety checks at an Accrington house. Tariq Ali will be electronically tagged for 12 months after he failed to carry out the required checks at an Accrington house. Mr Ali, who was sentenced at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, had ignored warnings from the HSE, putting his tenants at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Stuart Kitchingman, HSE inspector, says: “Mr Ali put his tenants’ lives at risk for financial gain by failing to arrange a gas safety check for nearly two years. We gave him several chances to organise an inspection, but he ignored all of these, including a formal improvement notice.”
Free estimate claims may be misleading Companies that offer free estimates but go on to charge customers to identify a problem are likely to have their ads banned, following a recent case investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The decision was reached in a case where the ASA banned an advertisement for Your Local Plumbing Company after the firm offered a free estimate, but then charged a customer an ‘investigation fee’. The company said that estimating the cost of fixing a known problem was free, but requests to identify a problem fell outside the offer. Its offer of a free estimation related to work such as installing a new boiler or bathroom and not for issues related to a faulty
boiler that would require diagnostic work. However, the ASA argued that consumers would expect checking a fault to be part of the diagnostic process required to provide a quote, and should therefore be covered by the free estimate. “Consumers would interpret the claim ‘free estimate’ to mean that the company would offer a quote following an assessment or diagnosis, and customers would be able to decline that work without incurring a cost,” the ASA said. “However, because the estimate was only free in certain situations and there was a charge for any diagnostic work, we concluded that the claim ‘free estimate’ was misleading.”
The ASA ruled that the advert must not appear again in its current form and told Your Local Plumbing Company to ensure that future ads would not claim estimates were free unless consumers are not charged for diagnosing a fault. Peter Knowles, from Your Local Plumbing Company, comments: “The complainant in this case was advised that she was ringing regarding a diagnosis issue and would be charged for this. The ad says call for a free estimate. She called and needed our technical help, which she was advised she would be charged for. We also refunded her. The complainant is not justified. We are going to appeal and hope sense will prevail.”
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Sea change
Home to more than 100 living marine displays, the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire was providing the perfect temperature for its denizens of the deep, but was struggling to accommodate the comfort of its human visitors. One of the venue’s two 18 year old boilers was operating at only 50% capacity, while the other was unusable. Viessmann worked with the aquarium to provide a new efficient heating system in the form of its Vitocrossal 200 CM2 gas condensing boilers. The two new 620kW boilers with weather compensation have delivered a reduction in heating bills of around 20%, saving the aquarium approximately £70,000 per year.
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