Carbon Monoxide Legislation

You are here:

14th November 2011

Carbon Monoxide Legislation

Owners of buy-to-let properties have been urged to invest in a carbon monoxide alarm to protect their tenants from potentially fatal poisoning.

Under current law, landlords are required to have annual checks carried out on the gas appliances in their properties to help reduce to the chances of carbon monoxide poisoning and other gas-related accidents taking place. However a new campaign – ‘Be Alarmed!’ is now calling for carbon monoxide alarms to be part of a landlord’s annual safety inspection.

Christine McGourty of the Carbon Monoxide – Be Alarmed! Campaign said: “We are urging people to go out and buy an alarm now – but there are also two simple steps we’d like the government to take”.

“Firstly, building regulations should be amended so that new homes come with alarms already installed. Secondly, providing an alarm should be part of a landlord’s annual gas safety inspection”.

According to the campaign’s research, only a third ofUKhomes currently have a carbon monoxide alarm and only one in five realise gas can kill.

Last year, 50 people died after being poisoned by carbon monoxide and 4,000 were treated in hospital.

The organisation’s president Stephanie Trotter commented “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,"

At Martin & Co Crawley tenant safety is a high priority. We will be contacting landlord when their current Gas Safe certificate expires to discuss the installation of an alarm and the possibility of servicing the gas appliances within the property.

Property Manager Kerry Frost commented “With carbon monoxide having no colour, taste or smell, an alarm can sometimes be the only way to alert tenants to the existence of a gas leak. It is important that with so many people renting now days that we as an agency make sure they are safe”.

If you are a landlord and concerned about your tenants safety, contact Kerry Frost on 01293 735000.