2^nd Sep 2014

The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) after investigating a landlord on failure to carry out gas checks, successfully prosecuted the owner of the property in Slough. The landlord was ordered to pay over £10,00 in fines and costs.

The landlord, over a four year period from 2010 to 2014, had not bothered to maintain or check any of the gas appliances in the property that he rented out to a family. His failure to do so could have put the family's lives in danger.  

The Magistrates' Court in Slough was told that during the four years the family did not receive one single annual Gas Safety Certificate for the property, that should have been provided by a registered gas engineer.

The landlord was made aware of the legal requirement and did not respond to the local council's abatement notice and took no notice of the HSE's warnings.

When a Gas Safe Register engineer did finally visit the property, it was found that the seal around the boiler's flue was inadequate and therefore dangerous. The boiler was also fitted with the wrong gas supply pipes and was classed as 'At Risk'.

The landlord was fined £9,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,941, after owning up to two breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations and a further charge for not carrying out further necessary actions, as stipulated by the HSE Improvement Notice.