I’m finally just about to embark on letting out my 3 bed house. It’s all decorated ready to go, I’ve had a brand new boiler & now just need the electric checks & a gas check for the hob.
Question; can I just get a test on the gas hob alone ?
Also does anyone know if it’s cheaper to use an independent electrician or an open rent provided one & would they also do any work they might find needs doing ?
I also need an EPIC, is this cheaper via open rent too or is it better to go to an independent company, are there any free services available for this too ?
What do you experts think of social housing options ? Is it a good option ?
I’d really appreciate any serious advice before I embark on the process please.
Social housing ? Forget it . The council is NOT your friend. I EPC privately. Use own elec . man. New boiler will have been tested? Should have had the hob done then
The gas safety record has to cover all devices including the (gas combi?) boiler but is the same price regardless. Make sure they properly record your address not just the property address otherwise it can be an issue if you ever have it queried/have to evict. The gas engineer will normally also carry out a ‘tightness’ test on the whole system (recommended by gas saferegister and hse) tho not strictly legally needed
Openrent services get slated on these fora because when done badly there is no recourse and aren’t necessarily cheaper tho as they charge a national rate they might be cheaper in London. You have no idea of the quality of the trades they send so it may be cheaper but may not be best.
Thanks, just to clarify I had the boiler fitted a year ago & the fitter tested the hob too at the time & included it in his test, but the service guy from the boiler company only serviced the boiler the other day, I didn’t ask if he could test the hob as I presumed he’d say no regardless, so now I need the hob tested on its own.
The Boiler service man is there to service the boiler nothing else. Being a new boiler it should be good, if a decent brand, for 20 - 25 years serviceable toil, when looked after and magnetic catcher cleaned yearly.
As a LL your main concern is Gas ‘tightness’ of all and any gas appliances - hob , boiler and supply pipework from the gas meter. so you need a yearly Gas Safety Certificate.
Try MyConstructor.co.uk for your locality. At least it gives you ballpark figures to work with if nothing else. check trustpilot for ratings if you need full reassurance.
Absolutely concur with @David240 and NRLA training
The lettings game can chew up and spit out your lovely newly-decorated house and brand new boiler, let alone you yourself so so you really do need to do what David240 says… become a member of the N R L A and do their training ASAP.
Simply from your very first message, it’s obvious that there are wide range of things that you’re unlikely to be aware of.
A boiler service isn’t the same as a GSR which has to cover all gas appliances (except any separate ones owned by tenant) so even tho the boiler service will have made sure the boiler was safe you still need a gsr covering both the boiler.and the hob. There are specific items identified in law that have to be in the gsr (others can dig out the gas regulations) extract below. As a simple example the boiler service won’t normally contain details of the LL address (or agent address) unlike the GSR.
Ask any Gas Safe engineer they will I’m pretty sure confirm the GSR needs to include the boiler irrespective of the recent service.
Best
Landlord Gas Safety Record: the low down
As a landlord letting a residential property, you have a legal duty to ensure it’s safe for your tenants. This means you’re required by law to get a Gas Safe registered engineer to do an annual gas safety check on all gas appliances - and it’s the results of these checks that are recorded in your Landlord Gas Safety Record. You’ll receive a copy, and you’ll need to provide a record of this check to your tenants.
In your record, you should find:
A description and location of each appliance or flue that was checked
The name, registration number and signature of the engineer who made the checks
The date the checks were carried out
The address of the property where the appliances or flues are installed
Your name and address (or an agent’s where applicable)
Information on any safety defects and actions needed or taken to fix them
The results of all operational safety checks carried out on the appliances
The gas pipework in your rented property must also be kept in a safe condition. Installation pipework is not covered by the annual gas safety check, but both we and the HSE recommend that when you request a safety check, you ask your Gas Safe registered engineer to:
Test for tightness on the whole gas system, including installation pipework
Visually examine the pipework (so far as is reasonably practicable)
Want to see an example of what the Landlord Gas Safety Record should look like? Download it here.
@katepereira_1 robably true if the engineer doing the gsr is the same as the one who did the boiler servicing recently as they can record the previous checks on the boiler. But a copy of the gsr still has to be given to the tenant and it still needs to include all gas appliances provided by the LL including the boiler. I could be wrong but that’s the advice I got from a Gas Safe engineer and that matches what I found online but @katepereira_1 can check with GSR suppliers.
I had a new boiler installed recently and then checked and as I had a hob I found I needed a GSR and the engineer who installed the boiler was able to come back and do the GSR which covered both the boiker and the hob but obv there was no need to do a full service of the boiler…
Do the landlord training before you market it. Think carefully about what kind of tenants you want and stick to your guns. Be prepared to go without rent for 2-3 months to make sure you get the right tenants. And don’t have any emotional attachment to the house, its state of decoration,etc it is just an asset.
