Landlord in Hot Water over Gas Safety

A Landlord will no longer ignore warnings from her local council and the Health and Safety Executive to provide a gas safety certificates for her property that she rented out to tenants, after receiving an order to pay nearly £1,500 in fines and costs.

 

At Chester Magistrates Court, she admitted breaching the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by failing to arrange an annual gas safety check and disregarding the HSE’s Improvement Notice. Magistrates were not impressed by the fact that Hashim ignored requests in May, twice in July and September 2011to produce gas safety certificates for the house that she rented privately to tenants. She ignored all calls and correspondence.

 

The court was also told she could not produce a safety certificate for October 2009 until October 2011.

Dozens of deaths every year in the UK have been caused by unsafe gas appliances, according to HSE inspector Martin Paren, which led to carbon monoxide poisoning. Gas safety checks are mandatory for landlords to ensure that this does not happen.

 

“This case should act as a warning to landlords that if they ignore the law then they may find themselves in court,” he said.