OPPORTUNITY IN STUDENT ACCOMMODATION AS LANDLORDS WARNED BY HSE

With hundreds of thousands of students heading back to universities and colleges in October, the demand for rented student property is at a high point.

However the Health & Safety Executive has also taken this as an opportunity to issue a News statement reminding landlords of their duty to maintain gas appliances and flues.

This creates a perfect opportunity for any Gas Safe registered installers to remind and customers who are landlords of their obligations and point them to the HSE’ advice, which is shown below ..you may even want to print this off and hand it out or point the customer to www.hse.gov.uk

Once you are on site, it is also the chance to look carefully at the boiler, the heating systems generally and especially the controls.

Many landlords run student accommodation on a budget basis and can be tempted to scrimp on controls, but with fuel bills at a record high and student debt growing, making sure the heating runs efficiently could be a good move for landlords wanting to attract a better tenant.

Persuading the landlord to invest a few hundred pounds in controls could pay real long term dividends in rental income and also help keep the property warm at the lowest possible cost to the landlord during any void periods.

The Health & Safety Executive’s Guidance for Landlords is as follows:

Maintenance – gas appliances and flues:
You must ensure that gas appliances and flues are maintained in a safe condition and that regular gas safety checks are completed. The requirement for landlords to provide domestic gas maintenance is distinct from the requirement for keeping gas safety records.

What needs to be maintained?
Any gas appliance or flue installed in the premises. This includes any appliances or flues serving the premises (such as central heating boilers not installed in tenants’ accommodation but used to heat them).

What’s not covered?
Appliances owned by the tenant; flues or chimneys solely connected to an appliance owned by the tenant.

Access to the property
The contract you make with your tenant should allow you access for any maintenance or safety check work that needs to be done. You must not use force to enter the property.

A landlord has to show that they took all reasonable steps to comply with the law. HSE recommends the following best practice in these circumstances and strongly advises that a record be kept of all correspondence with the tenants:

• Leave the tenant a notice stating that an attempt was made to complete the gas safety check and provide your contact details;
  
  
• Write to the tenant explaining that a safety check is a legal requirement and that it is for the tenants own safety. Give the tenant the opportunity to arrange their own appointment;
  
  
• HSE inspectors will look for repeated attempts to complete the gas safety check, including the above suggestions; however the approach will need to be appropriate to each circumstance. It would ultimately be for a court to decide if the action taken was reasonable depending upon the individual circumstances.

How often should the appliance or flue be serviced?
Gas appliances and flues should be serviced in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. If these are not available, we recommend that they are serviced annually, unless your Gas Safe registered engineer advises you otherwise.

Between tenancies
Before you re-let a property, you need to ensure that all appliances and flues are safe and have an up-to-date gas safety check record. When tenants vacate your premises, it is good practice to ask your engineer to inspect and test the pipework.

Who can do the maintenance?
All maintenance checks and repairs must be done by a Gas safe registered engineer.

What records do I need to keep?
There are no formal requirements for you to keep maintenance records. But you will need to be able to show, if asked, that you have regularly maintained the flues and appliances and completed required repairs. You do not have to provide records for tenants.

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