Bournemouth landlords urged to install carbon monoxide alarms
Posted by Jayne Codling
Owners of property to let in Bournemouth and elsewhere in the south-west have been urged to invest in a carbon monoxide alarm to protect their tenants from potentially fatal poisoning.
It comes after new research revealed that people in the south-west of England are less likely to be protected by a carbon monoxide alarm in their home than any other region in the UK outside London.
According to figures from the Carbon Monoxide - Be Alarmed! campaign only 29 per cent of people in the region have an alarm while three-quarters are unaware the gas can kill, reported the Bournemouth Echo.
As a result, 3.5 million homes in the south-west are at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, claims the campaign.
The organisation is now calling for carbon monoxide alarms to be should be part of a landlord’s annual safety inspection.
This could help reduce the 50 deaths resulting from carbon monoxide poisoning in the UK last year.
One of the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning last year was a Bournemouth man who died after a gas pipe broke in his rented home, said the local newspaper.
Charity CO-Gas Safety is backing calls for carbon monoxide alarms to be mandatory for landlords.
"In our opinion yes an alarm should be fitted or checked as part of the landlord's annual gas safety inspection but we also think the landlord should have to have his appliances serviced, not just checked," commented the organisation's president Stephanie Trotter.
"Landlords are under a legal duty to keep such appliances in a safe condition anyway so we consider this change to requiring a service not just a check, would be less confusing to landlords."
With carbon monoxide having no colour, taste or smell, an alarm can sometimes be the only way to alert tenants the existence of a gas leak.
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