To refuse Landlord's workman access for routine check?

[20mum]

Does anyone know detail of the routine checks? We knew there was supposed to be annual gas check (never done, but a) it is newbuild and b) The tenant simply got their own gas check and clean.)

We also heard there was a change of law to make electrical checks necessary. When was that law ? Did it apply to newbuild? How frequently is it required?

The last thing in the world the tenant would dare do is is to be a nuisance to a landlord. (Never contact them, just pay the rent way in advance, shut up, do any minor essential work at their own expense,) But, for someone extremely vulnerable shielding for over a year now, it would seem reasonable to admit anyone over the doorstep for an emergency, but not otherwise.

The tenant lives in Kent, at the heart of the new variant and the height of the crisis. They are, not unreasonably, frightened they have to choose between risking annoying the box-tickers and losing the roof over their head, or letting the box-ticking carry on as if there is no such thing as virus, and risking death.

And, no, they don't believe it's fine to let strangers in to go all over their home, on the assumption that if they wear masks there is a 100% guarantee that Kent Covid cannot be transmitted. That is obviously untrue. Hospital patients are commonly contracting Covid while in hospital for other things, and one must assume that the nurses are wearing masks.

We have tried to research. There is an apparent conflict of two laws. One, to do non-urgent work because the tick-box requires it. Another, to avoid any non-urgent work involving people entering homes.

I work for a local authority with housing stock. While most maintenance and non essential repairs have been stopped/ reduced significantly, gas servicing is seen as essential work.

It will probably be a gas safety check and a PAT test. Both are required by law for fire safety reasons so therefore quite a good idea to have.

I do not understand this constant reluctance on the part of tenants to facilitate access for safety checks. Its not as if landlords throw money at them for fun!

Gas safety check is yearly and has been the law for some time

Electrical check is newly legal and all existing tenancies must comply by April 2021

I believe that if landlords get it in writing that they have made all reasonable attempts to get the checks done then there will be some leeway during the pandemic. They do have to be careful though because it is not the tenant who will get a hefty fine for non compliance. How much "leeway" is not really very clear.

The checks are done for the tenants safety, its not just a box ticking exercise.

The gas safety check is annual and the electrical check is every 5 years. It is illegal to allow a tenant to move into a property without a current gas safety certificate. The new electrical check applies to all new and renewed tenancies from July 2020, and all tenancies from April 2021.

The HSE guidelines are that checks should go ahead in lockdown with precautions to prevent the spread COVID-19. However, they also say that if someone is CEV and has been told to shield, there should be a risk assessment to decide if the risk to the tenant's health is greater than the risk from the gas equipment.

www.gassaferegister.co.uk/help-and-advice/covid-19-advice-and-guidance/landlords/#vulnerable-tenants

The HSE has also said that they will not consider landlords to be in breach of the law if they have done everything they can to have the safety checks done but the tenant refuses access.

Tricky. I see both points of view. If I were vulnerable and shielding no way would I want to let someone in. If I were the landlord (and indeed the tenant) no way would I want the gas safety check not done. It really isn't a box ticking exercise, it's a genuine safety thing. I suppose you weigh up the immediate risks and I would see why they would find covid the greater risk right now, but I would also see why their landlord might not agree.

We had our gas safety check today, by coincidence.

Can tenant mitigate risk - open windows, keep distant ideally in a room which will not be entered etc . Statutory checks such as gas boiler and appliances are still necessary, to issue an annual certificate, even if tenant has arranged another.

I do not understand this constant reluctance on the part of tenants to facilitate access for safety checks

Because currently the risk of death from COVID-19 is higher than the risk of death from a faulty gas appliance. Last year there were only 7 fatalities from CO poisoning and 1 from fire related to gas safety. Even before gas safety checks, the numbers were very low. I think it perfectly reasonable that a tenant might want to delay safety checks for that reason.

Thank you. It is N O T gas. (Tenant did their own, and landlord knows, but also there is a peculiarity that the in-flat boilers are not exactly boilers. The regulations appear to relate to the building's main boiler, and the individual 'boilers' are merely controlling and measuring the supply of hot water into each flat). The theory is that when a boiler is not a boiler, it merely needs a clean and check now and then in case of limescale. There is no gas involved. Although a registered gas fitter has checked it, for the private reassurance and at the expense of, the 'over'- cautious tenant, he confirmed that the clean could in theory have been done by any handyperson and did not need doing annually)

@orangenasturtium expert info is much appreciated.
The building is less than five years old, so the construction checks should logically be still valid for the electrical conformity. It doesn't seem to make sense that even a building only completed, say, six months prior to April '21 would need a 'five year' check on that day?

.

Please, to those who say "just put on a mask and open windows and go where the workman won't go" Can you accept that people D O get infected in hospitals where every theoretical protection is made? Can you understand that there is no part of a building where an electrician won't need to go? Can you believe that the construction of modern flats is often such that there is no such thing as a through draught, so the open windows do little to exchange air, (though, in town centres, opening a window does admit a high dose of traffic pollution near the opened window) ?
Also, of course, some rooms don't even have windows.

The confidence of people is misplaced, when they still think the original Covid19 information about using face covering and washing hands is ample to provide operating theatre protection from a Kent variant asymptomatic covid carrier, let alone, of course, one who has the South African or the Nigerian or the two Brazilian variants.

Details over the specific check aside, op, there is a major difference in risk of catching covid between a hospital admission and an hour long visit to a property by someone observing hygiene and masking protocols as well as possibly can. Although again, I see the tenant's point of view and would probably have the same one in their situation.

If the house is a new build then it will have an EIC (electrical installation certificate). If it has an EIC that was issued less than 5 years ago, the landlord doesn't need to do the new electrical checks, he just needs to provide a copy of the EIC to the tenant. The first check is due 5 years after the EIC was issued.

Here are the government guidelines (the relevant part is in section 6):
www.gov.uk/government/publications/electrical-safety-standards-in-the-private-rented-sector-guidance-for-landlords-tenants-and-local-authorities/guide-for-landlords-electrical-safety-standards-in-the-private-rented-sector

an hour long visit to a property by someone observing hygiene and masking protocols as well as possibly can

The EICR takes several hours and requires the electrician to test wiring in every room.

Are there gas appliances elsewhere in the house? A gas hob would also need to be checked (and certificate issued).

The argument about patients becoming infected in hospitals is not a fair comparison. There is often very close physical contact between nurses and their patients and multiple contacts with multiple people who are, in the main, elderly and unwell in the first place. Presumably the contractor would not be giving a blanket bath or turning the person in bed?

Anyway it sounds as if the person concerned has already made up their mind on this one. If it were me I’d be insisting on face covering, gloves, ventilation and social distance. Then I’d go round with the Dettox.

I spoke to my landlords and they've left it to me to contact them as and when. I figure I'll ask them to call round one morning when I'm out in my wheelchair. They're fine with that.

Just speak to your tenant. A defence to not having the relevant checks is that your have used best endeavours and not been able to. Nobody is going to take a landlord to court for not having checks when a tenant is not comfortable with the Covid risk. Law is about enforceability as much as anything and how it will be interpreted, it’s not an on the spot fine for lack of these things.

@orangenasturtium

an hour long visit to a property by someone observing hygiene and masking protocols as well as possibly can

The EICR takes several hours and requires the electrician to test wiring in every room.

I've recently had this done on our house. It took at most an hour and a half. It's a large 3 bed terrace house I'm renting, for comparison.

Thank you again, esp. @orangenasturtium. Oh, just noticed your name properly. Those and old English Marigolds are my best ever favourite flowers. I'm desperately trying to cover up the orange nasturtiums against frost. So far, they are still alive!

If you are the landlord, YABU not to know what checks should be done annually before you rented a property out. If you are the tenant, YABU to refuse the landlord entry to check his property. The laws are there for protection. Whichever you are, it will be a LOT worse if you don't get the check done and a plumber has to come in (or a plumber and plumber's mate) for 2-3 days or different visits to fix the boiler when routine, legally-mandated checks would have avoided a breakdown in wintertime. This post and the updates are so garbled I don't know which one you are, sorry.

@20mum

Thank you. It is N O T gas. (Tenant did their own, and landlord knows, but also there is a peculiarity that the in-flat boilers are not exactly boilers. The regulations appear to relate to the building's main boiler, and the individual 'boilers' are merely controlling and measuring the supply of hot water into each flat). The theory is that when a boiler is not a boiler, it merely needs a clean and check now and then in case of limescale. There is no gas involved. Although a registered gas fitter has checked it, for the private reassurance and at the expense of, the 'over'- cautious tenant, he confirmed that the clean could in theory have been done by any handyperson and did not need doing annually)

@orangenasturtium expert info is much appreciated.
The building is less than five years old, so the construction checks should logically be still valid for the electrical conformity. It doesn't seem to make sense that even a building only completed, say, six months prior to April '21 would need a 'five year' check on that day?

.

Please, to those who say "just put on a mask and open windows and go where the workman won't go" Can you accept that people D O get infected in hospitals where every theoretical protection is made? Can you understand that there is no part of a building where an electrician won't need to go? Can you believe that the construction of modern flats is often such that there is no such thing as a through draught, so the open windows do little to exchange air, (though, in town centres, opening a window does admit a high dose of traffic pollution near the opened window) ?
Also, of course, some rooms don't even have windows.

The confidence of people is misplaced, when they still think the original Covid19 information about using face covering and washing hands is ample to provide operating theatre protection from a Kent variant asymptomatic covid carrier, let alone, of course, one who has the South African or the Nigerian or the two Brazilian variants.

People don't only die of Covid. Allow vital checks of utilities and take sensible precautions to minimise risk of infection.

Workman are given full PPE, if this person explains the concerns, perhaps they will step it up for them.

Hospitals are completely different to 1 person coming into your home for a check, they are not comparable.