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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder why owner/occupiers arent compelled to have gas safety checks.

28 replies

HelenaDove · 31/01/2015 20:55

Ive been pondering why this is just recently. Its suppossed to be about safety. So surely the same rules should apply. Tenants have to accomodate it and usually end up being pissed around because of it. landlords can sometimes end up being pissed around too. So if safety is what its REALLY about surely the same rules should apply for every property.

OP posts:
mywholelifeisaheadache · 31/01/2015 20:59

Not really.

Landlords have a duty to uphold the state of their property and ensure its habitable and safe to live in and one of those things is that gas safety checks are done. Would you rather die of carbon monoxide poisoning or have your house blow up when you light a candle?

When you own it. The onus is on you to make sure you're safe. If you cba you don't do it.

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 20:59

It is part of the responsibility of supplying a home to someone else, that you ensure it is safe for them. Ensuring your own personal safety is not anyone else's business, to anything like the same extent. Having said that, I think most people do get checked every year. Last time we had a safety check our boiler was condemned, and we were without heating and hot water for nearly a year!

Anyway, once a notice has been put on an appliance to say it is dangerous, it is illegal to remove the notice. (As far as I remember, it isn't actually illegal to use the appliance, but you would have to be stupid....)

Original poster
HelenaDove · 31/01/2015 21:04

"If you cba you dont do it"

Even if there are children in the house. What about the ppl living either side of the occupier. The houses that are attached to it.

OP posts:
Caronaim · 31/01/2015 21:06

I think most people do do it. You get nagged by the gas board as soon as it is due, and they don't stop nagging until it is done. it often doesn't cost anything, it is covered by our insurance. And if it wasn't done, our insurance would be invalid.

Original poster
HelenaDove · 31/01/2015 21:10

Ah i see.

OP posts:
OurMiracle1106 · 31/01/2015 21:13

I think its because if you own it and live in it, its your own safety you are responsible for however if you own it and someone else lives in it its someone else's safety that you are ensuring.

maddening · 31/01/2015 21:13

I think particularly in joined properties - flats, terrace and semis - they should be compulsory- a gas explosion or fire does not only impact one property.

Original poster
HelenaDove · 31/01/2015 21:18

Maddening thats what i was thinking.

OP posts:
Caronaim · 31/01/2015 21:29

I would never ever miss or delay a gas check. When our boiler was condemned, it looked, sounded and functioned perfectly normally. It was also fairly new. There was no way we could possibly have known something had cracked inside. It was something to do with ice forming on the flu the winter before, I'm not sure exactly.

TooHasty · 31/01/2015 21:35

I think most people do do it. You get nagged by the gas board as soon as it is due, and they don't stop nagging until it is done
Bollocks! I have never had, or had anyone ask to do, a gas safety check in 25 years of home ownership (apart from a house we let out, when of course we had to.)
safety checks check for carbon monoxide risk though not gas leaks , so unlikely to impact on a neighbour
We do have a CO detector though.

Original poster
HelenaDove · 31/01/2015 21:42

EXACTLY Too Hasty I dont think its about safety. If it was EVERYONE would be COMPELLED to have it done.
I think its more about certain (not all) heating companies making money out of social housing/private tenants.

OP posts:
Caronaim · 31/01/2015 21:42

toohasty, you presumably have your boiler serviced every year?

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 21:43

I don't think they make money out of it, helenadove.

Original poster
HelenaDove · 31/01/2015 21:45

Caro a company doing gas safety checks for tenants do because they have won the contract to do so usually after outbidding another company.

OP posts:
PekeandPollicle · 31/01/2015 21:47

We don't have the boiler services every year and don't have a cover plan. It isn't a condition of insurance. We do have CO2 monitors on all landings which are tested very regularly along with smoke alarms.

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 21:51

I'm shocked, how often do you have your boiler serviced? If not every year.

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 21:53

well, it is part of a much bigger contract, helena, at least it is here. They would have a bigger profit without the checks, the checks cost more to do.

PekeandPollicle · 31/01/2015 21:55

Probably 18 months - 2 years. The boilers only 2.5 years old and fitted by reliable plumbers who said no point doing it more. In our old flat we had the British Gas cover which was a complete waste of time. A morning waiting in for a check which didn't even take the cover off the boiler.

80sMum · 31/01/2015 21:55

I've owned my own home for 37 years and have never had a gas safety check and I certainly have never been "nagged by the gas board" about getting a check done! There is no such thing as the gas board - and hasn't been since the 1970s!

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 22:01

well which ever gas board you use, we use scottish gas now, and we have used british gas in the past. So peke, you do have regular checks then.

80s mum, you surely get your boiler serviced, don't you?

Original poster
HelenaDove · 31/01/2015 22:04

Many tenants have spent days waiting in for engineers who dont show up and then ended up with threatening letters accusing them of denying the engineer access.

OP posts:
Caronaim · 31/01/2015 22:08

That is an issue with individual employees, not the law or the policy.

80sMum · 31/01/2015 22:12

Caronaim yes, we do have the boiler serviced annually. It helps that we have a friendly, local gas engineer who phones to remind me when it's due a service, otherwise I would probably forget!

GreatSoprendo · 31/01/2015 22:18

I work in property management and we have to be absolutely 100% on getting all of our properties gas serviced every year to comply with the regulations. The guys who run our servicing division, who are all gas safe registered, told me that none of them would ever waste money getting an annual service on their own home boilers. Instead they all just have a decent carbon monoxide alarm, and pay for repairs as and when they crop up.

Caronaim · 31/01/2015 22:21

I don't think I am making myself clear, I've said gas check, people have responded that they don't have gas checks, then they have said they get their boilers serviced regularly, which is what I am referring to when I say gas check! ( and that whoever does it reminds them when it is due)