Gas servicing and access to your home

We have a legal responsibility to carry out an annual safety check on all your gas appliances – including pipework and flues - to ensure your safety and that of your neighbours and surrounding areas.

A Gas Safe registered engineer will visit your property to carry out these extremely important checks. A full gas service and safety check will be carried out on your boiler and any other gas appliance that we own in the property.

You will be advised of your appointment via a letter from the engineers. If the appointment is not convenient for you it can be rearranged either directly with them or through our Customer Services team.

The engineer will:

• On arrival show you ID to prove who they are, please check this and ask to see it if not shown straight away
• Inspect and service all gas appliances to check they are safe and being used correctly
• Keep a record of your annual gas service
• Give you a copy of your annual gas safety certificate
• Fit smoke detectors in your home if you do not already have them

Your own gas appliances, such as a cooker or a fire, will be given a visual check and any defects or concerns reported to you directly.

You must:

• Allow us prompt access to your home every year so we can carry out these inspections
• Keep any appointments that we make for inspections and servicing
• Let us know if you have to rearrange an appointment
• Get written permission from us if you want to replace a gas appliance
• Remove all ornaments and other items from areas where the engineer needs to work during the service or inspection
• Turn off any fire being inspected for at least an hour before your appointment
• Ensure your gas cooker is clean if it is being checked
• Make sure the engineer can easily access the boiler and meter cupboard

If you do not allow access, you will be breaching the terms of your tenancy agreement and we may have to take legal action to gain entry to your home (see below, 'Missed appointments').

Rearranging appointments

We're happy to rearrange appointments for you as and when necessary. However, due to the important nature of this safety check, in cases where appointments have been re-booked a few times we may advise that we cannot change it again. This is only in extreme cases where your current certificate is due to expire.

Mutual exchanges

Your gas meter will be capped and uncapped at times of a mutual exchange. We will strive to 'cap' (turn off) the meter to the property on a Monday morning for the outgoing tenant and return Monday afternoon to 'uncap' (turn on) for the incoming tenant. This is to keep a trail of gas appliances in the property and also to ensure that the property is Gas Safe for the new tenant. Tenants are responsible for ensuring they provide access for this process to take place.

Keeping up to date

Please help us keep in contact with you by ensuring your details are kept up-to-date.

Tenants should also ensure they know when their next service is due. In cases of holidays, or where you may be away from the property for a length of time, please give us a call and we can cap (turn off) the meter to make it safe while you're away or we can arrange suitable appointments for you around your needs.

Missed appointments

As outlined in your tenancy agreement, it's your responsibility to allow us access for one morning or afternoon a year to carry out these checks.

If you do not allow us access at the appointed time, we will make every attempt to contact you - by phone call, email and text – to rearrange the appointment for a time convenient to you. We will also write to you outlining our right to access the property. The engineer will also place a sticker on your door to prompt contact.

If we still do not hear from you, our solicitor will write to you requesting formal access. Throughout, we will continue to try calling you to make a suitable appointment to allow our engineer access. We will also ask your Housing & Neighbourhoods Officer to visit.

Court action

When your previous gas safety certificate is due to expire and we have still not gained access, we will begin one of our final steps. This will either be to prepare the paperwork necessary to gain a court injunction for access, or to send you an 'Intention to Cap' letter, which means we will cap your gas meter on the expiry date to ensure no gas can enter the property, to make it Gas Safe.

If and when we need to access to uncap and carry out a service you will be charged £50. Court action means all court costs involved in the injunction, and any fine imposed by the judge, will be added directly to your rent account, should the judge deem we have taken all reasonable steps to gain access for the service. Most tenants allow access on the first or second visit. However, there are still a small number where we have had to take legal action. In the last 12 months, we have won three cases at court and in each instance been awarded costs by the judge against the tenant.