Gas safety certificate should be a legal requirement for all households?

Now let me get this right.
You are complaining about the crippling effects of bureaucracy and you think that the solution is to fill out more forms and pass them on to someone else..........

I, for one, cannot identify with your strange attitude that because you have responsibilities every one else not in your position should suffer the same obligations. If you no longer feel the requirements of compliant landlordism are worth the effort and expense the solution would be to join the thousands of others who feel the same way and leave the business. You would then be able to buy a house to live in, bearing only the responsibility for and costs of safety and maintenance of that single property.
For what it's worth, the sums you set aside for maintenance and compliance seem on the low side to me, especially as you apparently operate HMOs. Furthermore, the agents you employ appear somewhat lax in their tenant selection process, judging by the incidences you reference. We are all only too aware that the obligations, restrictions and additional taxes and expenses heaped upon private landlords' shoulders of recent years, and particularly during this unprecendent current pandemic, are extremely onerous but nobody asked us to take on this role and if the burden becomes too great the remedy is in our own hands.
I recognise however that forums such as this do afford an opportunity to have a good moan, criticise the government for making us convenient scapegoats for their own failings, and air our grievances among ourselves.

I can see your point. I always thought if these checks are so important they should apply to everybody not just to landlords.

I think less regularly requirement for normal households to have a Gas Certificate and EICR would be good idea for all our safety not just tenants but perhaps every 5 years. For landlords these costs can be written off as tax deductibles from rental income. If you're on a low income or retired person with a limited pension for example these costs would be just too much and its unnecessary to do it every year (Gas Certificate). And perhaps there should also be a tax benefit for regular households too as well as Landlords.

An interesting summary of expenses and I generally agree with much of what you say.
I personally have a large portfolio and have seen remedial expenses go through the roof in the last year following: HMO Licence requirements, EICR checks, Gas checks and EPCs. Now I have never skimped on paying for necessary work and uplifts over the years and I believe all of my tenants are generally very happy.
Where remedial works are clearly essential following mandatory checks then fine, we must get this done.
My main problem seems to be with the contractors who undertake the tests. Many will submit quotes to undertake remedial work which in many cases is eye wateringly excessive. In short, if a contractor needs the work they have a licence to find it if they look hard enough.

I have always found it annoying that I have to provide checks for the tenant that I don't provide for myself.
I also find it annoying that these checks are set for abitary time periods. For instance I would find it less necessary to get a boiler check yearly if it was brand new compared to an older one.
Or if the boiler was off for half a year, because property was empty, then the boiler check could happen later.

The government have removed the ability of both the tenant and landlord to use their judgement. This causes waste in the economy, infantilses adults and pushes up cost of housing.

I agree with the comment about consistentcy, but it should go in the direction of less regulation, rather than more.
The reason these manadatory checks are not applied to everyone, is because they are not necessary. People who think they are necessary, go out and get them.

How is it that politicians think we are not capable of using judgement, but they are able to judge for both themselves and us?

Reply to the comment left by TheBiggerPicture at 25/03/2021 - 09:55
Spot on! I am quite certain that the failure to appreciate your views will be the end of us.

Reply to the comment left by TheBiggerPicture at 25/03/2021 - 09:55
These continual checks are getting onerous, but EPC is not expensive and a total waste of time as most is assumed. For EICR I use a qualified electrician that now just does EICR compliance checks so he is unbiased and has no financial gain to find anything wrong. He said two years he got so busy doing EICR tests, PAT etc, he has given up doing the "Tools".
We used to host foreign students and from some providers, they requested we had a Gas Safe certificate (if using gas) even though we are a residential house and smoke alarms on each floor - why you wouldn't have smoke alarms I don't know as they are cheap and protect you.

Reply to the comment left by TheBiggerPicture at 25/03/2021 - 09:55
Good points! And just to highlight and please correct me if I am wrong but with the EICR you are required to do a new certificate every time a new tenant moves in. Now surely if there has been no major change to the electrical set up of the property this is just a pointless and costly exercise and that EICR certification should at the minimum last for 5yrs or sooner if major electrical work carried out (and maybe that could prescribed in the certification and the landlord agrees to those rules to carry out a re certification or face a heavy fine)

David, You are brilliant, you have just given the Government an idea to generate several Billion pound in revenue, how would the authorities know whether you as a home owner have renewed or had your gas safety checks conducted, so this would lead the Government to make a new body called Home Occupation License, (HOL) which will require renewing each year, for which every household will need a Gas Safety Test Certificate, an EICR report, and home insurance, to get or obtain your Home occupation License, it will be exactly same as a road tax for cars, where you need an MOT test certificate, Insurance, etc, so before the Government issues you a license to occupy your own house, failing to renew your license in time you get an automatic fine of £500, yes you could not have dreamt it David, its coming soon now.......but before it actually hits us, I will be living in Bahamas.

But here is the reality, the stress of it all will kill more people than how many gas explosions kill. So David choose your death, which way would you prefer to die, through a gas explosion or through a slow and painful death through stress of it all and modern living?