Tenants found to be at risk due to poor gas servicing

Gas Appliances and Safety

Between October 2008 and April 2009 the Audit Commission conducted 13 short-notice inspections of social landlords’ properties, and found that tenants are not protected from potentially dangerous gas systems. Gas servicing was found to be the weakest performance area, socring an average of 0.66 points out of a possible 3 points. Of the three landlords inspected, two received zero points.

The head of housing for the south at the commission, Paddy Mooney, said that the main gas safety failing was that landlords are not having the gas systems in all of their properties reserviced every 12 months. Additional issues were found to be problems encountered in gaining access to homes to check the systems, and also that some checks which were carried out were of poor quality. As a result, Mr. Mooney said the inspectorate has decided to automatically include gas servicing in all short-notice repairs inspections in the future.

 

26th June 2009, Inside Housing (by Emily Rogers)