Hidden gas appliance, what would/ do you do

[Riley]

Afternoon chaps


Hoping somebody might be able to offer me a little bit of advice.

Whenever I go to do a GSC I try my best to explain to the tenant that "I need to test anything gas for safety, for example boilers, fires, cookers etc"

this usually prompts them to uncover some old gas fire that they have their washing leaning up against and I condemn it because it hasn't been touched in years and is a mess.

Today I had the letting agent moaning at me because I missed a fire in a property.

To be honest I challenge anyone to see it as the tenants had two massive cupboards in the way of it. They don't use the fire and subsequently forgot to tell me it was there.

I Realise I have a responsibility to check all appliances but with the best will in the world I could probably have stood in that room for an hour and wouldn't have noticed the fire and obviously the tenants didn't prompt me to look either.

Who is to blame here or is it just a catalogue of cock ups? Unfortunately the tenants speak very poor English so just finding the kitchen with the. Boiler and hob was trouble enough. Do letting agents have an obligation to tenants to make them aware of what they are signing for within a property.

Cheers as ever

matt

 

[gasmanrob]

To avoid these I used to get the agents to confirm in the work request the number of appliances known to be in the property they had it last year so they should know.

It's happened to me many times but that was my get out of jail free card

 

[Riley]

That was my thinking rob but this guy tells me he's too busy to trail through the inventory is every time

 

[Masood]

You can't be expected to move all their furniture on the off chance of finding a fire behind it! If they don't tell you, and it's not visible after a reasonably thorough walk-through of the property the how can you be blamed?!

Agents and tenants are eejits sometimes.

 

[Riley]

I'm glad you guys are of the same thinking

I'm thinking of binning this letting agent anyway. Awful properties everything done on the cheap. Which I refuse to do

 

[gasmanrob]

That was my thinking rob but this guy tells me he's too busy to trail through the inventory is every time

They don't have to they have last years to hand well mine did.

Either way you can't inspect what you don't know exists

 

[Riley]

This is true mate yes

 

[ambrosia]

good post this, missing an appliance such as a fire could be easily done. wonder what gas safes official opinion would be

 

[Riley]

Be intrigued to know. That's my main concern. Makes you wonder what would stand up in court

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

what i would say guys is be careful,a bloke got prosecuted by gsr a while back,IIRC a flueless water heater was involved and he did not know it was there ,unfair as it seems it poisoned someone and he got prosecuted

 

[Masood]

Be intrigued to know. That's my main concern. Makes you wonder what would stand up in court

If you asked them "have you got any other gas appliances" and they said no, I would hope that would be a decent defence? We don't have powers to search peoples' homes so we have to rely on information provided.

 

[Masood]

what i would say guys is be careful,a bloke got prosecuted by gsr a while back,IIRC a flueless water heater was involved and he did not know it was there ,unfair as it seems it poisoned someone and he got prosecuted

That seems really harsh!

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

That seems really harsh!

i felt that when i read it,will see if i can find the article ,it was in the gsr mag

 

[Millsy 82]

I've missed a fire before as it was behind loads of paintings and boxes in an artists studio. I found out 8-9 months later when the new tenant phoned up complaining the fire didn't work. It turns out that it had been missed for 5 years and the last tenant said to the last gas engineer he wanted it isolated as he never used it so when I said do you have any other gas appliances and he said no I had a quick look and off I went.

I used to always say do you have a fire (no mention of gas) when they say yes I would go and look to see if it was gas or electric same with cookers.

 

[arran197]

It's easily done if the tenant doesn't use the fire. I normally ask too, but then for them, it's too much trouble to move the stuff out the way so you can service a fire they don't use. So I imagine some people would lie about them anyway.

 

[ambrosia]

once had a builder ask me to disconnect a gas fire in a fire place which had been sealed behind plasterboard, he'd pulled away the plaster to open up the fire place and found it. who had ever sealed it in had never disconnected it.

prior to that theres no way anyone doing a cp12 would ever had known it was there

 

[GrahamM]

Every job I ask the question "any more gas appliances in the property?"
If the answer is no you must accept that. You have no right to go looking round property just in case there is a fire tucked away somewhere.
How someone be prosecuted for this I do not know! Must have been more to this particular situation.

 

[plumbdoctor]

Don't you put appliances in property and appliances tested on the lgsr and normally tennant signs it, I'm sure that would cover your backside

 

[Riley]

That's true enough mate yes.