A gas certificate is a record which shows that gas appliances in the property mentioned are safe to use. The 1998 Gas Safety Installation and Use Regulations state that all landlords in the UK are required to maintain a valid safety certificate. According to the UK Health and Safety Executive, a person is considered to be a landlord if they own any land and rents or leases the property for a term less than 7 years, or under a license.
Landlords are required to obtain gas safety certificates in order to comply with common law and will need the certificate as a matter of preventing deaths and accidents, avoiding jail or fines, keeping low insurance rates, and avoiding major liabilities in the case of gas failure.
Besides renewing the gas certificate annually and providing a valid copy to the tenants, landlords are also required to keep a copy of each gas inspection report for a period of at least two years. If a new tenant occupies the residence within twelve months of the last annual inspection, the landlord is required to provide each of them with a copy of the gas inspection repost. When a new gas inspection has been performed all tenants of the property must be provided with a report of the check within 28 days.
Gas inspection check reports must be completed by an engineer who is registered with the Gas Safety Scheme, which standardises gas safety among appliances. Different engineers may hold different qualifications and the price for a safety certificate could vary. Most competent engineers are able to provide a valid landlords gas safety certificate. Brighton, Sussex, is home to a number of trustworthy companies who may be contacted to carry out a legitimate safety check.
The engineer will carry out a number of actions during a check. Some of these may include: checking the appliances for gas tightness, checking the burner pressure and gas rate against the manufacturer’s guidelines, and checking for pressure and effectiveness of the stability brackets. During the test, the engineer will also be required to investigate any evidence of unsafe operation, in which case they must report to the person responsible. And finally, if the test points are available, they may check the standing and working pressure lines.
Once the check has been completed the landlord will be provided with a report. This report may either be issued as a gas safety report of a gas safety certificate, depending on the job completed. A gas safety report must include a number of information. As a minimum the report must contain:
- Description and location of each appliance and/or flue which has been checked.
- The date on which the appliance and/or flue were checked.
- Name, registration number, and signature of the engineer who carried out the check.
- The address of the property at which the appliance and/or flue were checked.
- The name and address of the landlord, or his agency, of the property.
- Any defects identified during the check, and any action required or taken to fix it.
- A final confirmation of the results of operational safety checks which have been carried out on the appliances.
For those in need of a landlords gas safety certificate, Brighton, Sussex, includes a number of companies who are able to carry out a professional safety check and provide the certificate upon completion.