This is a continuing thread as the first became very confused, at least for me, and was closed. Hence for clarity and as a measure to help other landlords, I thought it useful to publish the results that I will be gaining from Trading Standards in a separate thread. It concerns more than the withheld certificate and will have guidance in the answers that will be of benefit to all landlords in this community.
For clarity OpenRent acknowledged the confusion around the withheld certificate that was the subject of the first thread and as a good will measure waived the extra charge. Therefore this thread does not involve any aspect of the first thread, rather it involves legal questions that could be of benefit to all landlords in this community and not just myself; hence the sharing of the results of the Trading Standards investigation when they become available.
I have not published my questions to Trading Standards in this community thread, as the results of their investigation will show those anyway and it is not necessary to discuss them directly further in this thread.
The recommended procedure of contacting the supplier and OpentRent as an acting agent was followed and thoughts and views based on the information available at the time was tabled in the original community discussion to gain different viewpoints and a wider understanding of those different viewpoints.
Upon collecting that information I reviewed it and my conclusions were sent to OpenRent and the supplier. For community reference purposes only here, I can confirm that my summay was:
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The supplier did act correctly and professionally.
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I do not believe at this time, with what I currently know, that there has been any intention to misrepresent, or any careless or reckless behaviour including any negligence on the part of OpenRent.
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I believe there are points that I need to follow up on with Trading Standards for the benefit of all landlords that I will share in this community. This is to establish factual answers that are supported evidentially by the professional investigation of Trading Standards.
At this time I do not see further grounds for taking action outside of Trading standards and I consider my complaint about the originally withheld certificate to be resolved and ended. This is a new thread to courteously share knowledge with fellow peer landlords.
What is of interest, is connected and useful to landlords reading this thread is “what do landlords feel from their experience is best practice to deal with questions of procedure and law?” this is a wide question and as such it is the procedure and law that is of interest as likely that the context subject has already been resolved.
I have recently had feedback about the results but deemed off topic in this platform’s moderation and flagging so I have removed it.
Actually is on topic but I agree there is room to argue it is not and as such I respect the call and see it may confuse so grateful that call was made.
Thank you!
I have had one reply from Citizens Advice and they have asked it be submitted to another level in their organisation then it can be referred to Trading Standards.
Understood as otherwise the Trading Standards teams would be facing enquiries that did not meet their published criteria and an unnecessary increase in workload.
I have tried several times to post a copy of this reply after removing references and names but all my posts are now moderated and I have sent an email to support as must be a technical glitch as none are breaching the agreed terms and conditions.
I should have probably added that I did read the criteria on many Trading Standards sites local and national and my enquiry does meet their criteria, hence the move through to the second stage before a full investigation.
Hello, I am trying to follow this, what do you mean by certificates? Why did open rent withhold them? Where is the other thread?
Good day Samina1,
Here is the link Certificate withheld
I started the post frustrated as you will see and I was confused as to why when I had paid my ÂŁ45 fee I was not being given a certificate and as I only have 2 appliances, the gas hob and the boiler and the boiler was serviced separately, I was feeling robbed by this.
Have a look and I am happy to answer questions, but there may be a delay as I am an overseas UK citizen landlord who is UK tax resident but physically resides in Malaysia as semi retired and travel with my own professional company now as I have decades of technical experience I wanted to share in developing countries for free.
I have had a response from Citizen’s Advice and surprise, surprise that too is being held for moderation like others that do not agree with and support OpenRent’s position on this.
I have been working around these constant moderations and looking like faulty filtering rather than attempt to gag free speech 
I have legal training as well but do not practice law and I found a lot of unanswered questions in this whole event and the discussion in this community helped a little but did not answer wider questions so I took those questions through Citizens Advice screening and onto Trading Standards .
Unfortunately the privacy protected copies I paste in this community with names and references removed, are immediately held in moderation and have been for days now. I have asked why in many emails to OpenRent support, as there is not any breach to the terms and conditions published by OpenRent.
Some of my posts have been filtered and hidden so I deleted those.
To be clear for this community as some members are triggering the hiding of posts, I have had replies from Citizen’s Advice who correctly filter for Trading Standards and I support that.
I have tried to post those responses with privacy preserved by removing names and references, for the community to follow.
However the faulty filtering and the hiding of posts which could make all disjointed is being handled, as sharing knowledge with other landlords is important to me.
Citizen’s Advice filtered twice as it is quite complex and their final response today was “…Thanks for taking the time to tell us. We’ll share the information you’ve given us with Trading Standards. Please be aware that trading standards do not update us on cases.”
I will contact Trading Standards at the appropriate time for an update and share that information in this community for the benefit of other landlords who are interested and that is not just myself.
I will act with integrity here and say that these latest moderation grabs of information are likely due to poor filter settings, although I can be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
I will email support again and advise and then support tickets can be cancelled saving time and money for OpenRent.
Wow this is certainly quite involving! I like this level of detail though. And will be interesting to see what happens.
Where can I find out what open rent includes in thier boiler service? Do u have a direct link please to their page which shows details?
Apologies Samina, I will spin this out to another thread as I have been reported and had posts hidden/deleted as not being on the subject and they were as they were some example Trading Standards case law, anyway I called it Boiler Service8 Boiler Service8
and now confusion in this thread will be avoided.
This was the message I received and looks like it was a community member or members that triggered it and not sure why, anyway this is in subject to explain my deletions:
Hello,
This is an automated message from OpenRent Landlord & Tenant Forum to let you know that your post was hidden.
https://community.openrent.co.uk/t/withheld-certificate-trading-standards-investigation-results/73361/3
Your post was flagged as off-topic: the community feels it is not a good fit for the topic, as currently defined by the title and the first post.
This post was hidden due to flags from the community, so please consider how you might revise your post to reflect their feedback. You can edit your post after 10 minutes, and it will be automatically unhidden.
However, if the post is hidden by the community a second time, it will remain hidden until handled by staff.
For additional guidance, please refer to our community guidelines.
Thanks I will take a look
There is a legal requirement for a gas safety certificate. It’s true that a boiler service should identify an unsafe boiler, but it doesn’t result in a gas safety certificate being issued.
Without a certificate it is not legal to rent so unfortunately you have to pay for both even if the work involved overlaps.
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