Gas safety check flexibility?

Reply to the comment left by Martin Green at 06/11/2018 - 13:50You need to show them the references provided above. Make sure your talking to the manager though! If they don't agree it's time to change your gas safe provider! Also, complain to Gss Safe Register via this free phone service. See my link above in previous comment.

If a LL commissions a check early (say after 10 months), and the engineer states the expiry date as being for 14 months after the check, all well and good. But if, (for whatever reason), the engineer puts the expiry as being 12 months after the check, I'd be very uncomfortable trying to argue that the expiry date is a lie!

As previously quoted, the Regulations make it fairly clear that the engineer should enter the actual date of inspection, which is then to be treated as having been made on the deadline date. Whether the engineer understands the new rules and what he puts in the "next inspection due by" box will make no difference to the date on which the next inspection is actually due but I can understand why he would be reluctant to confirm that the next inspection is due in more than 12 months. It would require him to confirm the validity of the earlier certificate and extend his responsibility considerably. Whatever date he enters, the onus will always be on the landlord to demonstrate compliance. The certificates really need to be revised to reflect the change and draw attention to it, but until that happens we will have to interpret them in the light of the amended.Regulations.

I've done loads of these & yes we have to tell the plumbers the rules have changed.
It's so easy now, so we don't leave it till last minute.
We book plumber two months in front.
If he gets there pretty quick, there is date received by & date record issued by, this normally same date ie. 10 Nov 18.
And date next inspection is due before ie. 10 Jan 2020.
Yes as Rob says, this date due is 12 months from last expiry date.
Piece of cake. Just like car MOT.

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 10/11/2018 - 09:34
I still maintain that the date inserted on the certificate as the date of next inspection will not in itself be accepted as incontrovertible evidence and that if challenged it will be necessary to produce the original certificate showing that an inspection was carried out, in the case of the example given, on 10th of January 2018, regardless of what is stated on possibly many years certificates since then.

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 10/11/2018 - 11:32
You've lost me.
So are u saying save the old certificate as well? Which has been in place for years, saving the last two.

The current latest certificate also shows an inspection was currently carried out.

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 10/11/2018 - 11:35
Yes, because there will be no other way of proving the original date, so what I'm saying is that you need to keep the original, plus certificates for the last 2 years, which are required by a different part of the Regulations. Certificates vary - the Regin form REGP45 shows the date of inspection and says "Next gas safety check must be carried out within 12 months". I therefore assume that the "next inspection due by" box on the other type that I've seen is simply for guidance, is not part of the statutory requirements and could be open to challenge. Maybe it's a grey area but I prefer to be on the safe side - imagine Shelter challenging a S21 eviction on the basis that the certificate provided at the start of the tenancy was invalid because it was more than 12 months from the date it was issued and had therefore expired. How are you going to prove otherwise if you can't produce the original, particularly if the subsequent certificates on which you rely are in the Regin format? The difference from MOT certificates, which followed the same sort of development is that as far as I remember they always had a prescribed format which included the expiry date.

What do u mean Original Original? The very first one?
Cause that would be hard if it's a house u bought & u only have the latest one. Is that what the regs say u have put up there without me reading them all?
As I have many brand new boilers & big companies don't give u Landlord certificate when brand new boiler. We normally only have the latest one & the 2nd year one.

I'm getting lost now ha ha, & that is why going forward with all these regs, no more UC tenants & all new stuff with Letting Agents, they can keep up with latest regs.

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 10/11/2018 - 16:02But Mick, if the letting agents get it wrong you will still be held responsible, so you need to get your head round this. The 'belt and braces' approach suggested by Seething Landlord could save you a lot of future problems, especially in the event of needing to issue a Section 21. With regard to the new boilers, I imagine they were replacements between annual inspections and that would not affect the date of expiry of the existing certificate or the date on whch the next annual inspection is due.

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 10/11/2018 - 16:02
Mick, I agree that it's a nightmare. What I mean by the original is the one that sets the base date that you want to use going forward i.e. the last one before 1st April 2018.