‘MOT style’ gas safety checks come into force

On 6 April 2018 the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 came into force. The changes come following a consultation carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) between November 2016 and January 2017.

Prior to the amendment, the 1998 regulations required landlords to complete gas safety checks every 12 months. Landlords often begin this process early in order to avoid issues gaining access to properties. It is common for this to result in 11 checks taking place on average every 10 years as opposed to the statutory 10 checks. This ‘over-compliance’ is potentially placing an unnecessary and unintentional financial burden on landlords.

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 will give the landlord an option to renew the gas safety record up to two months prior to the ‘deadline date’, i.e. during months 11 and 12 of the current gas safety record, without losing any of the validity period. Following completion of the check, the record will be treated as if it has been carried out on the last day of the 12 month period of validity. It is important to note that the MOT style of renewal is only available to a landlord if he can prove that the two previous checks were carried out on time.

In addition to this change, where an appliance is replaced or added to a property, the gas safety check for the said appliance can be carried out up to 14 months after the installation. However, this may only be permitted once in relation to each new appliance and only if this aligns the safety check with the existing deadline date for the other appliances or flues in the same property.

The final amendment to be aware of is that as a minimum requirement, the last two records must always be retained by the landlord. Although the previous regulations required a record to be kept for at least two years, we have always recommended to keep them for much longer — an advice we stick to also under the new rules.

It is important to highlight that the new regulations do not alter a landlord’s legal obligation to carry out an annual gas safety check. The amendments introduce flexibility in the timing of annual gas safety checks without disadvantaging them by shortening the safety check cycle or reducing safety standards. The new flexibility will reduce the issue of ‘over-complying’ and, it also enables improved maintenance planning which, is likely to be of benefit to the tenant as well as the landlord.