Gas and heating safety
Gas and heating safety
The Gas Safety Regulations 1998 deal with the installation, maintenance and use of gas appliances, fittings and flues in domestic properties to ensure they remain safe. It’s a legal requirement that we carry out an annual gas safety check.
We’re responsible for maintaining heating systems to ensure that all heating appliances provided for residents are safe. These include oil, solid fuel, and electrical heating systems.
If you have any gas appliances in your home, such as a gas boiler, we will need to ensure that these appliances are working correctly and that they are safe – with no gas or carbon monoxide leaks.
At all times – If you smell gas:
- Call National Grid immediately on 0800 111 999
- Turn off the gas emergency control valve (also called gas emergency shut off valve) at the meter.
- Do not turn light switches or power sockets on or off.
- Open your windows and air the property.
Our role
We’re legally obliged to maintain a safe environment for residents and colleagues within the home of each resident, and within all communal areas of buildings and other properties we own and/or manage.
We carry out an annual gas safety check to all properties with a gas supply, irrespective of whether the gas is connected or not. To do this:
- We check that smoke alarms are installed and working in your home.
- If you have either a gas boiler or another form of fuel burning appliance, such as an oil boiler or an open fire, we check there’s a carbon monoxide detector installed and working.
- We repair or replace faulty alarms as soon as reasonably practicable.
- We issue a copy of the latest safety check record within 28 days of the check being completed, or prior to any new resident moving in.
- We display a copy of the latest safety check record in a common area of a building where the gas appliance serves a communal heating system to multiple homes.
- We operate a robust process if there is difficulty gaining access to a property to carry out the gas/heating safety check or remediation works. We will use the legal options available within the terms of the tenancy agreement, lease, or license if you consistently fail to provide us with access.
- We will do as much as is practically possible to provide reasonable adjustments or provide additional support to enable residents to better access and understand our services, including to complete safety checks.
Where a gas supply has been capped, we will:
- Carry out an annual gas safety check to all properties where the gas supply has been capped at the request of the resident, to ensure the supply has not been reconnected by the resident.
- At the same time, we will check on the resident’s wellbeing and assess whether the lack of gas heating is adversely affecting the condition of the property.
- In addition, we will communicate monthly with these residents to ensure the property remains capped and inform the resident of what is required to reinstate gas at the property.
Your role
- Provide access to your home for the legally required annual gas and heating safety check, after receiving an appointment letter.
- Contact us if you have a question, concern or complaint.
More information
We are required to report on our residents’ satisfaction with safety checks, repairs and maintenance through the Tenant Satisfaction Measures. Read the report here.
Read our Reasonable adjustments policy here.
Read more information at Gas Safety – Gas Safe Register.