Tenant to HMO Landlord question

Landlord Discussion
1

Hello Landlords

Those of you that have HMOs or shared housescould you please take a moment to try to answer a few questions for me:
1.How to you ensure your house/s are maintained/cleaned by tenants? What measures do you use.
2.Is there specific insurance you must have for your property.
3. When a tenant leaves are you obliged to tell other tenants of leave date and check property on day.
4.Are electric and gas certificates compulsory.

Thanks in advance

1 Like
2
  1. I don’t expect my 4 HMO tenants to maintain the property, I do put in their tenancy agreement that they must clean/clear up after themselves in all shared areas. Mostly they keep this up to a standard which they seem satisfied with. I clean bathrooms and other shared areas approx. once a month.
  2. You must tell your insurers that the property is an HMO and is properly licensed.
  3. I don’t tell other tenants when one is leaving, they usually talk to each other anyway. I always check the property when one moves out.
  4. Gas certificates are compulsory and please don’t skimp on this, lives are at stake! The partner of a tenant of mine had lost her young son, several years ago, to carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty boiler flue.
3

Thanks Sue, Im actually a tenant myself checking what/ how things may be done. Im in a 2 tenant share, may be slightly different(?)
I did think gas compulsory, thats terribly sad re the young son. My Landlord has never had gas done.

4

You should have sight of a gas check and certificate once a year

1 Like
5

:worried: what should I do about this?

6

Has the other tenant seen a certificate?

7

You do have gas in the property?

8

Yes lol. Boiler and hob run off it. No, never seen,

9

you must ask your landlord for sight of the certificate. If he does not comply. you go online to the HSE Health and Safety Executive. There is an online form you can fill in then you leave them to handle it . They have great powers… Google in HSE and gas.

1 Like
10

Ah thank you thats great info. I will do that tomorrow. All this time its not been done.

1 Like
11

P S You should be given at the start of a tenancy a copy of the certificate

1 Like
12

So at start houd be current then followed each year by renewed one? And is it worse that theres been none for 5 years??:hushed:

13

5 years that is very very bad. It will need a good service by now Every year a new certificate ,and every year you get a copy. I would get a carbon monoxide alarm and put it near the boiler RIGHT AWAY.

1 Like
14

Its one thing to not do this if its just you in own home, totally different if you have others there instead. Ok thanks lots for help tonight, I will pursue. This Landlord has been a horror, doesnt give a damn.

1 Like
15

Horrified that the boiler hasn’t been checked in 5 years. There should be an annual check and by a Gas Safe Registered engineer, not just any Tom, Dick or Harriet with a spanner. https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/your-landlords-safety-responsibilities. I hate landlords like yours, they give us all a bad name, yours does deserve to be reported, try the local council’s housing department, they should have an officer responsible for private housing.

16

let us know how you get on… I am a Landlord myself so know this is important

17

If you get a certificate you can check that the gas engineer is Gas Safe registered by checking his details on the Gas Safe website

18

I have just read through this forum and I can see that you have other issues that haven’t been touched on properly.
May I say that firstly you should not be contacting the HSE as they do not deal with such an issue as yours they only deal with issues that have resulted in loss of life or Extremely seriously dangerous situations which your situation is most definitely not and you shouldn’t be filling out the forms they do have a report form but that is not for you either.

  1. The first thing you need to do is contact your local council private housing enforcemeant officer and file a report for not having any CP 12 certificate for your gas and you can further complain about anything else that your landlord is not doing so that they can investigate accordingly.

  2. At the same time that you file the report to the council you should also be writing to your landlord asking for your EPC, CP12 & Electric Certification documentarian.
    Please also note that it is a legal requirement that the landlord should hold at least the last two years worth of CP12 certificates.
    You do actually have 2 issues, One issue is that you don’t have the other issue is that you never received at the beginning on or before the commencement of the AST.

  3. You should be also then contacting the ICO and checking to see if your landlord is a registered data controller or not.

  4. And if your landlord is that incompetent then I advise you to further contact the Shelter, CAB and the PSU as they will be able to help you further and direct you and possibly hold your hand somewhat.

There is also the matter of now needing to know if the landlord has the correct mortgage taken out on the property and the correct buildings insurance which should be checked because I would presume they would not be correct if your landlord is as bad as you state.

I hope this helps.

19

If he really has gone bust there may be no money left > But nothing ventured nothing gained

20

Thank you Andrew and Colin.
So far…I went to the council and they rang private sector, the department to take it up with was enviro health. That was the main issue but it turned out certain furniture and electrics are another issue. A complaint has been filed and now I await a visit.
The HSE has online form and I only wanted to know their process and how a certificate is logged so I didnt fill in. I rang gas safe though and was concerned to find that it stays in the house- engineer circle. So in theory a person could ( and there have been cases) get a cert quick and none wiser. I would estimate he knows about 4 gas engineers. Only boiler are logged as building regs is involved.
BUT just half an hour after I get a message ( no he had no idea) to tell me that when the co tenant moves out ( wont confirm date) hes moving in. SO Ive just signed my eviction havent I-by reporting him. Now he has just given himself the right to remove me for no reason, that will be seen as one.
Im due to CAB tuesday. Follwed by going to see the councils Shelter type arm.
( big sigh)