29th
Nov 2013
A London landlord who rented out a property in Tottenham Hale and after repeatedly trying to repair and fix his botched attempt at illegally installing a boiler, has been successfully prosecuted by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) and received a jail sentence.
The landlord tried repairing the boiler three times and it was only after an extremely distressed tenant asked for help from the National Grid as gas could be smelt throughout the property, that a qualified technician came out and immediately stopped the gas supply.
An investigation immediately found six faults with the landlord’s botched installation of the boiler and had failed to use a Gas Safe registered engineer breaching Gas Safety regulations.
The prosecution took place at Westminster Magistrates Court on the 22nd November. It was told that the landlord had illegally fitted a boiler and pipes at the house in January earlier this year.
After the installation was carried out the tenants straight away complained of being able to smell a high amount of gas being leaked throughout the house. The landlord returned to the property to try to stop the gas leaks on three separate occasions and was unable to resolve the problem.
A tenant had no other option than to complain to the National Grid on May 8th which then arranged the disconnection of the supply. A subsequent Gas Safe investigation found the cackhanded installation of the boiler and pipe work and botched attempts to carry out repairs.
As there was no sign of any proper installation that had been carried out by a registered Gas Safety person and any annual certification for any of the gas appliances required by law, the landlord had breached his legal duty of care for his tenants.
The HSE carried out the prosecution for three separate breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
The landlord had no other recourse than to plead guilty to all of the charges and received a jail sentence of 26 weeks and ordered to pay the costs of £1,852.
PIMS related content
Since 1 April 2009, only Gas Safe registered engineers should be employed to carry out work on gas installations or appliances – CORGI gas registration will no longer be valid
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