Hi
I am hoping you amazing landlords can help me with an issue that I’m really worried about. I have spoke of my situation before about my daughter and granddaughter needed their own home but as she was my carer and on UC it was virtually impossible. However we finally found a landlord who was happy to take a chance and she now has her own tenancy. Unfortunately the house was incredibly in a bad way cosmetically and incredibly dirty so many many hours spent cleaning from too to bottom etc. Any way my point is that my daughter moved in and all was well until she wasn’t well and was feeling flu like chills so she put the fire on and after feeling less chilly turned it of and went up to bed. However the next morning she wasn’t any better and tried to turn the fire on again but it wouldn’t come on so she called the landlord and he told her it wasn’t working and had been condemned and capped off but which we know it isn’t because she had it on the night before and there was NO caution sticker left on the fire. My daughter was sent her tenancy and gas certificates online and it’s virtually impossible to read so my question is what is a landlords responsibility as far as leaving condemned equipment in a home with no warnings because I’m also not clear on what else could have been condemned like the gas cooker and boiler. I have asked the landlord and the agency for a hard copy of the certificate but each is blaming the other of who has it or where it is. My daughter is young and will not move back to me because she’s just desperate for a home and I’m an absolute wreck and unsure how I approach the landlord without getting his back up with threats of reporting to the authorities etc. So wondered if some of you excellent landlords on here could offer any advice (I personally want her to leave) on how to best approach things? Or any advice at all would be helpful. Thank you.
Make sure there is a working carbon monoxide detector in place. They are only legal requirement if solid fuel appliance in place but from from oct 1 they are legal requirement for all combustible appliances.
If there isn’t one just buy one it could save someones life. Landlord is responsible for providing, but I wouldn’t mess about and just buy if needed.
Is there gas coming out of fire? If there is it’s certainly not capped off. Are there other fires in which could cause the confusion? There would normally be a sticker, sounds like you landlord is tight and doesn’t want to fix it.
A landlord can leave a capped fire in situ, provided it’s classed as safe by gas engineer. They should however have the problem fixed if it’s agreed the fire is included. A landlord does not have to provide a working fire. I have had perfectly good fires capped off as they are a greater risk for everyone, (properties with central heating, done prior to tenant moving in).
Keep pushing for legible gas cert. They need to provide this. Find out if your daughter knew if it wasn’t included or broken before hand. Refer to inventory, read AST.
Thank you for your help. The landlord has said he has someone booked to come fit a carbon monoxide detector but hasn’t given a date. There is only one fire in the property and it’s definitely not capped off and no warning sticker because my daughter turned it on for a few hours so it was an incredible close call because if it had turned back on the next day she would have never mentioned anything because he never made her aware. I am going to buy a detector today regardless because it’s too risky like you said but the landlord is the type who doesn’t look after his properties and as she only signed a 6 month tenancy I have told her we will keep looking for somewhere else regardless of it being a pointless exercise at the moment.
Gas engineers can’t leave gas appliances in a dangerous state. They would have to cap off to prevent use if there’s risk of leak or carbon monoxide poisoning.
If in reality there was no CP12 gas certificate in place when she moved in then as the law currently stands, s21 can never be used to evict her. I would keep pushing for the gas cert because if its not essy for the landlord to evict her, it gives a certain amount of freedom to involve the local Environmental Health Officer, who can force the landlord to carry out other necessary repairs.