Landlord Obligations - Health & Safety Regulations

Consumer Safety is number one priority and the law is quite specific with your obligations as a landlord. The law makes particular demands regarding the safety, servicing and inspection of the gas and electrical appliances and installations within a property. It also refers to any furniture you may provide to your tenant including soft furnishings.

Barton Real Estates can help you meet the following regulations by introducing you to suitably qualified contractors. We ensure that these are undertaken at the start of the tenancy and will co-ordinate a re-test every year thereafter unless otherwise instructed not to do so.

   

Gas Safety Regulations

The Gas Safety Regulations place a vast responsibility on you as landlord and you must ensure that you understand your obligations in relation to gas supply and appliances.

You cannot contract out of your obligations under the Regulations and you should be aware that a breach of the Regulations is a criminal offence enforced by Health & Safety Executive and may result in a custodial sentence being issued.

 

An Overview of the Gas Safety Regulations

Essentially, as a landlord, you must:

  • Have gas appliances checked for safety by a CORGI registered gas installer within 12 months of their installation and then ensure further checks at least once every twelve months after that.
  • Ensure a gas safety check has been carried out on pipe work, each appliance and flue every 12 months, except where the appliance was installed less than 12 months ago. The CORGI registered installer must take remedial action if an appliance fails a safety check.
  • Give a copy of the safety check record to any new tenant before they move in or to an existing tenant(s) within 28 days of the check.
  • Keep a record of the safety check made on each appliance for two years.
  • Ensure that gas appliances, fittings, and flues are maintained in a safe condition.
 

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 make it mandatory that gas appliances in rented property must be maintained in a safe condition at all times. The Regulations obligate you to ensure that all gas appliances are maintained in good order and that an annual safety check is carried out by a tradesperson who is registered with CORGI (Council for Registered Gas Installers). All CORGI installers should carry identification cards which will state on the back the type of work they are authorised to carry out. Many landlords use the same person to carry out the gas safety check every time. Whilst the person may have been CORGI registered at a particular point in time, it does not necessarily mean that still are! It is always prudent to verify this.

 

Once the inspection has been carried out, the installer will provide you with a gas safety certificate. A gas safety certificate must be provided to tenants of properties, which contain gas appliances when they first go in, and annually thereafter. Failure to do this is a criminal offence.

 

You should also arrange and pay for any necessary repair work to be carried out and should not seek to place responsibility for this onto the tenants, although if the repairs are caused by the tenants’ improper use of the property, then the tenants can be charged for the reasonable cost of the repair work.

 

It is very important that the gas regulations are complied with and all necessary repairs carried out as soon as possible. Defective gas appliances are very dangerous and some tenants have died as a result. If you have not fulfilled your obligations and something goes wrong, you face manslaughter charges and imprisonment.

 

Does the Tenant have any obligations?

Yes. Tenants also have responsibilities imposed upon them by the Regulations. A tenant must report any defect that they become aware of and must not use an appliance that is not safe. The tenant is usually notified of this obligation in the tenancy agreement.

 

Electrical Safety Regulations

This section covers electrical installations and appliances and the duties and responsibilities placed on you as the landlord. There are a number of regulations governing electrical safety and these include:

Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Consumer Protection Act 1987, Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 and Building Regulations 2000. Essentially you must ensure that the fixed installation and all electrical appliances supplied by the landlord are safe.

 

Landlord Responsibilities

You must ensure that the electrical installation and all electrical appliances are ‘safe’ with little risk of injury or death to humans, or risk of damage to property. This applies throughout the life of the tenancy and includes all mains voltage household electric goods supplied by the landlord such as cookers, kettles, toasters, electric blankets, washing machines etc. Any equipment supplied should be marked with the appropriate CE symbol.

Appliances you supply should either be new or checked by a qualified electrician before the property is let. All paperwork regarding the item (i.e. receipts, warranties, certificates of inspection) should be kept for a minimum period of six years.

One way of helping to achieve safety is to undertake a regular formal inspection of the installation and appliances on an annual basis. The Electrical Safety Council advises that best practice you should

  • Check the condition of wiring, burn marks or any other obvious fault or damage
  • Check that the correct type and rating of fuses are installed where these are re-wireable
  • Ensure all supplied appliances are checked by a competent person at suitable periods and that any unsafe items are removed from the property. Record details of all electrical appliances, including their condition and fuse rating
  • Ensure that instruction booklets are available at the property for all appliances and that any necessary safety warnings are given to tenants
  • Avoid purchasing second-hand electrical appliances for rented properties that may not be safe and energy efficient
  • Maintain records of all checks carried out.
 

NOTE - Although there is no statutory requirement to have annual safety checks on electrical installations and appliances as there is with gas, the Institution of Electrical Engineers recommends a formal periodic inspection and test being carried out on the installation at least once every ten years or on a change of tenancy. It may be appropriate that where the risk is found to be greater, for instance where the installation is very old or where damage is regularly found, a more frequent regime will be necessary. Moreover, given your obligations under the HHSRS it is almost forced upon you to have this done.

 

This periodic inspection and testing should only be undertaken by someone competent to do such work. On completion, a Periodic Inspections Report should be issued by the person carrying out the work and this should be retained by you as the landlord.

 

Part P Building Regulations

The regulations relating to electrical installations fall into two categories: existing installations and new work.

New work: The design, installation, inspection and testing of electrical installations is controlled under Part P of the Building Regulations which applies to houses and flats and includes gardens and outbuildings such as sheds, garages and greenhouses.

All work that involves adding a new circuit or is to be carried out in bathrooms and kitchens will need to be either carried out by an installer registered with a government-approved competent person scheme or alternatively notified to Building Control before the work takes place. Generally, small jobs such as the provision of a socket-outlet or a light switch on an existing circuit will not be notified to the local authority Building Control. High-risk areas such as bathrooms and kitchens are exceptions. All work that involves adding a new circuit or in bathrooms and kitchens will need to be either notified to Building Control with a Building Regulations application, or carried out by a competent person who is registered with a Part P Self-Certification Scheme. More details can be found in ‘Approved Document P’ published by the DCLG and in their guidance leaflet ‘Rules for Electrical Safety in the Home’.

On completion of any new electrical installation work an ‘Electrical Installation Certificate’ or ‘Minor Works Form’ should be issued by the electrician or installer carrying out the work and this should be retained by you, the landlord.

 

Furniture and Furnishings

There are regulations dictating your responsibilities as landlord when providing furniture and furnishings. These essentially relate to fire safety.

 

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire)(Safety) Regulations 1988 apply to domestic items which contain upholstery, including beds, headboards, mattresses, sofa-beds, nursery furniture, garden furniture which can be used indoors, furniture in new caravans, scatter cushions, seat pads, pillows and loose and stretch covers for furniture.

 

The regulations require that all new furniture (except mattresses, bed-bases, pillows, scatter cushions, seat pads and loose and stretch covers for furniture) must carry a display label at the point of sale and this is the responsibility of the retailer. Moreover, all new furniture (except mattresses and bed bases) and loose and stretch covers are required to carry a permanent label providing information about their fire-retarding properties. Such a label will indicate compliance, although lack of one would not necessarily imply non-compliance as the label might have been removed. This is fine as long as the landlord can demonstrate that the item was purchased in the UK after the regulations came into force.

 

The Regulations apply to furniture, beds, headboards of beds, mattresses, sofa beds, futons and other convertibles, scatter cushions and seat pads, pillows and loose and stretch covers for furniture that contain upholstery. The Regulations do not apply to sleeping bags, bedclothes (including duvets), loose covers for mattresses, pillowcases, curtains and carpets.

All furniture must meet the Fire Resistance Requirements by passing a cigarette-resistance test. Cover fabric, whether for use in permanent or loose covers, must pass a match-resistance test and filling materials for all furniture must pass ignitability tests.

The Regulations apply to persons who hire out furniture in the course of business which includes rented accommodation, and to the hiring of furniture which also includes furnishing let as part of a residential letting.

 

From 1st January 1997, all upholstered furniture provided in privately rented accommodation was required to comply with the fire and flame-retarding requirements of the Regulations unless it was either: manufactured before 1950 or the tenancy commenced prior to March 1993.

Tenancies commencing prior to 1993 are exempt, but all additional or replacement furniture added after this time must comply with fire resistance requirements and a new tenant will mean that all furniture must now comply.

 

Tip: some furniture comes from abroad so although it may have been manufactured yesterday it was not manufactured in accordance with UK regulations!

 

Fire Safety

As landlords have a DUTY OF CARE to ensure the safety of their tenants we would advise that battery operated smoke alarms are fitted to each floor as a minimum. Once fitted the tenant becomes responsible for the battery.

Contact Barton Real Estates