Ensure your student digs are safe

Almost 2 million students attend UK universities each year and this September there will be another intake of hundreds of thousands – many will share rented flats and houses. Some of these will have older and potentially dangerous gas appliances. The Heating Helpline reminds landlords and letting agents that they have a legal duty to have their boilers and other gas appliances checked and serviced each year.

4 August 2010 – Hundreds of thousands of students will be heading to UK universities and renting flats and houses this September. When choosing a property many students understandably look for low rent and proximity to the campus. But how can students ensure that the accommodation they are moving into does not have one or more old and defective gas appliances? The Heating Helpline (www.heatinghelpline.org.uk), the home heating advice service backed by the Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association (HVCA), says that landlords and lettings agencies that rent accommodation to students have a legal duty to ensure that gas appliances in the property have been checked and serviced on an annual basis. Bob Towse, technical and safety consultant for the Heating Helpline, comments, “Gas appliances in rented accommodation should be serviced annually in accordance with manufacturers’ instructions by a Gas Safe registered installer in addition to having annual gas safety checks carried out on them. “Landlords that fail to properly maintain a boiler or other gas appliance are putting tenants’ lives at risk – poorly maintained or defective appliances can leak potentially lethal quantities of carbon monoxide (CO) and around 50 people still needlessly die every year from CO poisoning. Apart from the financial consequences of breaching gas safety legislation, with Corporate Manslaughter legislation now in force, landlords that do not comply with the law and act negligently could be very harshly treated by the courts. “Landlords might also consider that a properly maintained boiler will operate much more efficiently and can actually lead to energy savings, and with the very high cost of gas these savings could potentially be greater than the maintenance cost”. “We strongly advise any owner or managing agent of student accommodation with gas appliances that have been infrequently serviced in the past contact an HVCA member to get the system inspected”. If you are living in rented accommodation your landlord must issue you with a copy of the gas safety certificate following the annual safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer and you should not hesitate to contact the Health & Safety Executive (0845 3450055) if the landlord does not provide this. The gas safety certificate must also be provided to tenants when moving in to a new property. All HVCA members are independently checked to verify their technical competence, commercial capability and customer service levels. HVCA members that operate in the domestic sector are all Gas Safe registered and members of TrustMark, the government-backed scheme that makes it easy for consumers to find reliable, reputable trades people. To find a reputable heating engineer and HVCA member in your area, contact the free Heating Helpline on 0800 840 4069 or visit the website at: www.heatinghelpline.org.uk. Ends