Gas safety and servicing
Gas safety is something we all need to take very seriously. As a landlord, we’re legally required to check things like gas fires and boilers every year (see below). And as a tenant, you need to know what to do if you smell gas in your home.
What to do if you can smell gas
If you can smell gas in your home, you should immediately call the National Grid on their gas emergency number: 0800 111 999.
They will give you safety advice, which may include telling you:
- Not to smoke or light matches
- To extinguish any candles or other flames
- To leave all electrical switches as they are – don’t turn anything on or off
- To open doors and windows to ventilate the space
- To turn off your home’s gas supply at the isolation valve (unless this is in a cellar).
You should also contact us to report the problem – but make sure you call the National Grid and follow their advice first. Speak to our Customer Experience team by calling 0800 013 8555.
How to turn off your gas
If you need to turn off the gas, you’ll need to find the isolation valve for your home. In a modern property, it’s usually located outside in your meter box. If it’s not there, it may be under the stairs, below the kitchen sink, or in a garage.
To turn off the gas supply, you’ll need to turn the handle so that the lever is at a 90 degree angle to the upright gas pipe.
Making your home safe
The National Grid may need to come to your property to make sure it is safe. Once they’ve done this, it’s likely that we’ll need to send out a gas engineer. The engineer will check all your gas appliances – when they are sure everything is safe, they will switch the gas supply back on.
Gas servicing
To help reduce the chances of you having to deal with a gas emergency, we're legally required to carry out safety checks on gas appliances like boilers and fires at least once a year. We’ll write to you to let you know when your gas service is due. We’ll do our best to make sure we give you an appointment at a time that’s convenient for you. If you're unable to make your appointment contact us as soon as possible.
It’s really important that you keep the appointment and let our engineers service your gas appliances, both for your safety and your neighbours. If you have a pre-paid meter, you’ll need to make sure there is credit on it at the time of the service - for both gas and electricity. We have to carry out these checks at all homes where there is a gas supply, even if you don't use gas appliances.
When the engineer carries out the service, they will check that your heating and hot water systems are working efficiently. They'll also check to see whether anything needs upgrading. Once they've completed the gas service you'll be sent a gas safety certificate (called a CP12) - this will usually arrive in the post within 28 days.
Missed appointments
If we arrive for your appointment and can't access your property, either because you're not there or because you won't let the engineer in, you will be charged a fee of £10. We’ll also leave a letter explaining how to arrange a further appointment. If you don't contact us within five working days of the date on the letter, we'll start County Court proceedings and apply for an injunction to access your home. You could be faced with a very large bill if you don't provide access to your home and allow the servicing to be done. Legal costs will be around £1,500 and we'll seek to recover this from you. This may seem harsh, but unserviced gas appliances can be very dangerous, to you and people who live near you.
