If you aren't sure of what a Gas Safety Certificate is, or you don't realise the significance of having one, then Warming Wakefield are here to tell you all there is to know and why they're so important, whether you’re a landlord, homeowner or tenant in Wakefield!
What is a Gas Safety Certificate?
Gas safety certificates are awarded to a property pending the successful completion of a gas safety inspection by a Gas Safe Registered heating engineer. When visiting your property in Wakefield, Leeds, Huddersfield, Barnsley, or York, our gas engineers will complete all safety checks and tests, and then produce a certificate to demonstrate that your property is safe and in compliance with British gas safety regulations.
What do our engineers check?
Our gas safe registered engineers will thoroughly check all gas-enabled appliances and all gas fittings throughout your property. Examples include gas boilers (conventional, system and combination), gas fires, chimneys, gas pipework, flues etc. All fittings and gas appliances must be checked against the recommended frequency provided in the manufacturer's handbook of each appliance.
Are gas certificates essential?
Landlords
Whether you are a landlord of any residential property, hotel, caravan site, pub/restaurant or anything of this ilk, you are legally responsible for the safety of your tenants. This means that if you do not have an in-date gas safety certificate (within 1 year), then you could face prosecution.
As a landlord, you are required to ensure that a fully-qualified Gas Safe Registered heating engineer carries out annual checks on all gas fittings and all gas-enabled appliances.
Upon successful completion, it is important that you firstly keep record of this certificate for at least 2 years so you can show your compliance with any regulatory bodies that may come looking for it. And secondly, you should allow any new tenantesmake the certificate available to all new tenants immediately or make it available to all existing tenants within the first month of the tenancy.
Tenants
UK law states that all gas appliances that are supplied with the property must be checked with regards to their safety, but the law does not state that the tenants of a property need to get these checked by a gas engineer.
If you are a tenant and your landlord has not provided you with an in-date gas safety record or certificate, then you should get in touch with them and request one immediately.
Homeowners
As a homeowner, you are not legally required to have a gas safety certificate, but we strongly advise that it is within your best interests to get your property professionally checked. You can do this through an annual boiler service or gas safety check with us here at Warming Wakefield.