Rented flat - who should pay?

[Fitbunny]

I'm renting a flat and when I moved in there was no carbon monoxide detector there so I bought one. It started beeping and I told the agency who I rented it off and they called someone to check the boiler. It turned out there was no carbon monoxide leak and the plumber thought the detector might have been faulty. The agency is trying to make me pay for the plumber, can they do that?

Regulations may differe in different parts of the UK though

OP acted in good faith. Of course they shouldn't have to pay

So because of that the landlord should pay?

The agency chose to call the plumber not the OP. Maybe they should have directed OP to the gas emergency number instead

Gas boilers are not solid fuel. Though it is good practice to have one. You purchased an item that was faulty so you should pay.
After this is resolved request the landlord to get one then you don’t have to buy them and therefore be liable for it.

OP didn't know it was faulty. Maybe it wasn't and there was a brief spell with higher CO that dispersed afterwards.

OP check your outside flue as we had snow on ours once that caused our CO alarm to go off

OK. This is tricky. So its recommended but not required.
So you are liable as you provided the alarm and then it was faulty. In retrospect you should have gone to the agents first and requested one- it would be best practice for them to provide one, then changing the batteries would be up to you. (As they always beep when low and even if mains also have batteries that also need changing). I think it would be reasonable to say - I will pay this time but I want you to provide me with a CO alarm as it is recommended. Or offer to go halves. An emergency call out isn't cheap (2-300 quid) especially for nothing. Another thing you could do to put your mind at rest is have an additional paper CO one. That way next time it starts beeping you can look at that and say OK well I know this is probably just the batteries.
To give some context ours have wired in fire and Co alarms. A fire alarm beeped and they called out an emergency worker on a BH to change batteries which cost us 300 quid. We were pretty peed off but just verbally asked that next time they consider the impact. Ie they had to wait longer for a new bathroom to recoup the cost.
It should give you an idea about how good the agents are and what the landlord is like.
Good luck

If there was no carbon monoxide detector when you moved AND the flat required one (we are still waiting to hear what kind of heating appliances you have) then you should have asked the landlord to supply one? If that caused an unnecessary call-out by a plumber, you would be in a far stronger position to claim the costs. Although I have to say, I wouldn't be calling the rental agency and waiting for a plumber to turn up (the next day?) if my CO monitor started beeping.

What does your lease say?

As a housing association tenant i was told it was mandatory in rented accommodation but that might have just been for us not private sector ive had one for years now its never beeped

I think the landlord should pay as the letting agency/landlord should know about the emergency gas line and not have called a plumber. Carbon Monoxide detectors may not be required by law but they are strongly advised and are also very cheap. A landlord not bothering to buy one is a pretty shit landlord.

Has it definitely been established that the CO detector is faulty? If my CO alarm was going off I wouldn't take a random plumbers word for it that there was no problem.

I would remind them of the government guidelines a PP posted:

"However, as gas appliances can emit carbon monoxide, we would expect and encourage reputable landlords to ensure that working carbon monoxide alarms are installed in rooms with these."

They really should have installed one themselves.

I would also point out that their response was wrong and potentially life-threatening. They should have told you to turn of the boiler, open all the doors and windows, leave the property, seek medical advice and call the gas emergency line (they deal with CO as well as gas).

They potentially put your life in danger and paid for an engineer unnecessarily. They should have called the gas emergency service.

www.which.co.uk/reviews/carbon-monoxide-detectors/article/what-to-do-when-a-carbon-monoxide-detector-goes-off-aJ0JV7F00Wl2