The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with support from the National Landlords Association (NLA), launched the new microsite as a one-stopshop to help landlords understand what they should be doing to keep tenants safe in properties they let.

With six million rental properties in the UK and an estimated 14 million people living in them, most are very safe but in 2008/09, 15 people died from carbon monoxide poisoning, due mainly to gas appliances having been badly fitted or poorly serviced.

By law, all landlords are required to arrange for a Gas Safe registered engineer to check all gas appliances and flues within 12 months of being installed and then at least every twelve months. They are also required to complete any necessary maintenance and repairs of gas appliances, flues and pipework.

Peter Brown HSE Head of Work Environment, Radiation and Gas Division said, “Tenants should quite rightly expect that their landlords are taking all necessary steps to ensure that gas appliances are safe. Though there are legal duties on landlords, meeting them shouldn’t be an onerous task. The new website provides all the information landlords need in one place.”

Just recently an Oxfordshire landlord was prosecuted and fined £8000 for failing to ensure gas appliances in his rental property were safe and fit for purpose.

A Cambridgeshire landlord who failed to manage his duties and produced false gas safety records was jailed for 16 months.

www.hse.gov.uk/gas/index.htm