Gas Safe Certificates may not say what you thought!

Gas Safe Certificates may not say what you thought!

16:24 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago 18

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We were in the process of letting a property and had been presented with the Landlord’s Gas Safety Certificate. The Landlord’s property has a gas boiler and gas hob and as far as the Landlord was concerned both appliances were covered by a British Gas HomeCare agreement. The Landlord’s Gas Safety Certificate was also provided by British Gas and listed both appliances, however, on closer examination it was only the boiler that had been tested and declared as safe. Gas Safe Certificates may not say what you thought!

The Landlord was not aware that the hob was not included in the British Gas HomeCare agreement. As it was listed on the certificate the Landlord assumed it had been tested.

The inspection details were of no real interest to the Landlord, his interest was in the “PASS” stamp at the bottom of the certificate.

The British Gas Gas Safe Engineer had not pointed out that the hob was not covered in British Gas HomeCare agreement and therefore he had not tested it!

I wonder how many Landlords have not checked or do not understand what has or has not been tested?

Unless you are familiar with the layout of the certificate and understand what should be entered in each of the 14 columns, it is easy to misinterpret the information provided.

Landlords & Tenants; please check your certificates and make sure all the gas appliances in your property are listed and that each individual appliance on that list has been tested and a “YES” has been inserted in the “Appliance Safe” column!

Regards

Rob


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Comments

BigMc

16:58 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi, unless I have been misinformed a gas safe certificate is for a property inclusive of all connected gas appliances connected at the time of inspection.
BG may choose not to service appliances not covered by a service agreement but they cannot issue a gas safe certificate without testing them.
I suggest you put in a call to gas safe.
Good luck

Mark Lynham

17:08 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

so the hob was listed in the 'appliance details' section but no checks were made? ie, none of the boxes along that line had been filled out? A Gas Safety Record (its not a certificate) has to check ALL gas appliances at the property for safety and i would find it really odd for British Gas not to do that...

Jeremy Smith

17:12 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

The certificate will clearly state what has and has not been tested.
BG used to charge an extra £25 to test the Hob as well.

The Landlord will be well aware that the Homecare agreement he/she took out was just for the Boiler.
None of the Homecare options include the Hob.
Sounds like the landlord was just trying to save a few pennies, but possibly loose some lives in the process. !

Mark Lynham

17:15 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jeremy Smith" at "16/06/2014 - 17:12":

''Sounds like the landlord was just trying to save a few pennies, but possibly loose some lives in the process. !''

without being aware of the facts thats an outrageous comment to make!

All BankersAreBarstewards Smith

17:15 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jeremy Smith" at "16/06/2014 - 17:12":

sounds to me like the landlord made a genuine mistake and is now trying to pout it right

BigMc

17:15 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi, Sorry I was wrong and have been corrected (by Gas safe). As Mark says it is a record not a certificate. In the check, all gas appliances must be recorded but only some may be tested and this must be shown on the record. A separate check must then be carried out to test the unchecked appliances for the property. So 2 or more certs to pay for per property. Suggest you add appliance to contract or replace BG

All BankersAreBarstewards Smith

17:15 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Lynham" at "16/06/2014 - 17:15":

well said mark lynham

Rob Crawford

17:39 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

People are making a lot of assumptions here with no supporting evidence! Where does it say a gas safe engineer employed to do a boiler must also do all other appliances in the property? If this was the case we would have gas safe engineers doing a search of each property before starting work. At the end of the day it is the landlord's responsibility, however, landlords are not experts. Receiving a Gas Safety Check Record that has each appliance listed with no clear statement saying one has not been serviced is easily missed. Jeremy - your out of order, how on earth you came to this conclusion I am not sure. If a landlord has multiple gas appliances under separate support arrangements a number of Gas Safety Check Records could apply. Where does it say that all appliances must be recorded as safe on a single Gas Safety Check Record? Please be specific, i.e. where in the Gas Safe/HSE website or other source?

BigMc

17:49 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi Rob,
If you read my previous post, it tells you my source which is the gas safe register. The engineer must check the property, must list all connected gas appliances and show which have been tested and which have not.
Those shown as not tested need to be tested and covered by a separate record.

Rob Crawford

17:50 PM, 16th June 2014, About 10 years ago

I am not too worried about whether its called a certificate or record, both terms are commonly used.

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