Reply to the comment left by "John Walker" at "27/07/2015 - 21:24":

From everything I've understood on this thread, a blanket approach is not possible (even if they all have combo boilers).

Could one of the HSE commenters confirm whether John's approach would be considered acceptable...?

Reply to the comment left by "Luke P" at "27/07/2015 - 23:04":

It may, depending on how John has carried out and documented the Risk Assessment and met the associated requirements. In summary these are:
1.RA to be carried out by competent person.
2.Take action to prevent or control risks from legionella..
3.Inform tenants of the risks of legionella and their obligations
4.Review the risk assessment on a regular basis
5.Manage the risk from legionella.

Reply to the comment left by "Jireh Homes" at "28/07/2015 - 08:07":

I'd hate to put words in his mouth and I'm sure John will be back shortly to comment, but I imagine that he's not actually left his office to properly assess each individual property, but rather has made the decision, knowing that all the properties have combi boilers, to apply a single blanket approach...the way I (and I suspect most other landlords) would want to deal with this legislatory ball-ache.

I do have a couple of questions -who is considered a competent person (besides an expert)...the landlord themselves, assuming no formal training? Also, what would be an example of 'action' in preventing or controlling risks from legionella?

Reply to the comment left by "Alex Sammut - ISAC UK Ltd" at "20/05/2015 - 11:49":

Thank you for this detailed explanation. As I was asked to pay £100 plus vat per property by my estate agents who would contact a company they use. I rather wanted to attend a course and conduct the risk assessment myself and create a leaflet to leave with the tenant, advising how to minimise risk, for example running the taps after being away on holiday, etc. I do want to look into improving my competency so I am able to identify risks myself.

Reply to the comment left by "John Walker" at "27/07/2015 - 21:24":

To do a risk assessment you need to identify where all the hot and cold water pipework goes, and ensure that there is no pipework that does not get a regular flow (e.g.'spur' for a washing machine but no washing machine fitted). If any such is present, then it will need to be removed or managed.

It should also be noted that any shower head is a risk and needs to be managed.

As for reviewing the risk assessment, it seems to me that if there is no change to the plumbing, then that is the review done, so the cost of a risk assessment should be a one-off event.

Agree that the Risk Assessment may be a one off exercise, so long as the findings are such that no remedial action is recommended from the observations and the risk may be managed with a clearly defined control programme. This is not always the case as sometimes there is work which should be carried out e.g. cleaning out the CW header tank, removing long dead legs. However there remains an on-going obligation to check the Risk Assessment is still valid, which may then be carried out with someone who is aware of the very basics and documented with a check box on say the regular inspection reports or in-go Inventory and Check-in Report.

Alex, that's an excellent summary, many thanks

Hello

A Legionella Testing Certificate isnt required. However, a Legionella Risk Assessment is. I suspect thats what these agents are talking about.

I concur with Alex above as he did train me in this anyway!!

Hi

This has been an interesting thread to follow. We've had our agent tell us we need to get a Legionnaires risk assessment done; and surprise surprise they can arrange it for £150 (can't remember if that included VAT or not).

Having done a bit of research on it, I came to the conclusion we could do it ourselves UNTIL we found a sample report by a company called "Green Water Services".

Their sample report is at this link.
http://www.greenwaterservices.co.uk/SampleRiskAssessment.pdf

The report seems pretty comprehensive, yet based on some of the discussions here seems very over the top for a self contained domestic letting.

I'd be interested in here from the experts in the field as to whether this is required level of detail or whether this is simply over the top to justify the fees involved.

My understanding (at its simplest) was that the risk assessment simply needed to look at the system, check that the temperatures met the criteria at exit points and that an action log was provided to the tenant to ensure they regularly cleaned taps, shower heads and the like.

If you don't have ANY water tanks, then it is easy to do your own risk assessment. A lot of BTL properties have no water tanks.