Gas Safety

Lochfield Park will service any gas fires or central heating boilers in your house every year. It is essential that you allow the technicians access to do this work. If you have any gas appliances of your own, e.g. a gas cooker then you should have it repaired and serviced by an approved tradesman. You must check that any tradesman is registered with Gas Safe, a body which approves only properly qualified and trained gas installers.

If you want to install any gas appliance, you must first contact Lochfield Park for permission. It is dangerous (and is unlawful) if you let an unqualified person(s) fit, repair or service a gas appliance.

If you smell gas in your home, you should:

  •                     Put out all cigarettes and other naked lights,
  •                     Switch off all gas appliances,
  •                     Turn the gas off at the mains (the main tap is usually beside your gas meter),
  •                      Make sure you do not turn on or off any lights or other electrical switches including mobile phones(this could cause a spark),
  •             Open windows to allow any gas to escape,
  •                      Phone Transco on the emergency number: 0845 111 999.

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 came into force on 31 October 1998. The regulations give legal protection to the public and place important duties on public and private landlords. The regulations cover normal gas supplies and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is usually supplied from tanks and cylinders and is commonly used in mobile homes.

Landlords must:

• Maintain all gas fittings, appliances pipework and flues for which they are responsible in a safe condition so as to prevent risk of injury to any person 

• Ensure that all installation, maintenance and safety checks are carried out by a gas installer registered with the Gas Safe Register

• Ensure that an annual safety check is carried out on each gas appliance/flue by a gas installer registered with the Gas Safe Register. Checks need to have taken place within one year of the start of the tenancy, unless the appliances have been installed for less than 12 months, in which case they should be checked within 12 months of their installation date. From 6 April 2018 an extra two months can be allowed where this is to bring the date of the check on that appliance into alignment with checks on other appliances or flues. Only one such delay is allowed per appliance.

• Keep a record of each safety check for two years (from April 2018 records must be kept until there have been two further checks)

• issue a copy of the current safety check record to each tenant within 28 days of the check being carried out, or to each new tenant before they move in (in certain cases such as holiday cottages the record can be displayed)

• Ensure satisfactory equipment is installed for detecting, and for giving warning of, carbon monoxide present in a concentration that is hazardous to health