Stephensons is pleased to endorse Gas Safety Week by encouraging commercial landlords to keep their properties - and their tenants - safe.
Gas Safety Week aims to raise awareness of gas safety in the UK, particularly around the dangers of poorly maintained gas appliances, such as boilers, water heaters, stoves, ovens and fireplaces.
Badly fitted and poorly serviced gas appliances can cause gas leaks, fires, explosions and carbon monoxide poisoning. In England and Wales last year, more than 40 people were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning alone, with 200 people hospitalised.
While smoke detectors and CO detectors can be vital in alerting tenants to a potentially life threatening faults in gas appliances, many incidents can be avoided by ensuring that an appliance is correctly installed and maintained by a qualified gas engineer.
Landlords should make sure that an engineer is ‘Gas Safe Registered’. Registered engineers are listed on the Gas Safe Website and always carry a Gas Safe ID card. Each of these details should be thoroughly checked before allowing any engineer to start work on a gas appliance.
David Baybut, Head of Real Estate at Stephensons said: “Although gas safety is important all year round, for many landlords - with so many other things to think about - it is not always a top priority.
“Checking the safety of gas appliances is vital in any property, but especially in rented properties where tenants may be less familiar with the signs of a potentially dangerous defect or fault.
“Landlords are required by law to arrange an annual gas safety check. Failing to do so is not only putting landlords at risk of prosecution, but putting their tenants in danger of injury or even death.”
To find qualified Gas Safe engineers in your area, visit www.gassaferegister.co.uk
For more information about Gas Safety Week, visit: www.gassaferegister.co.uk/gassafetyweek/