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08th September 2011

Landlords urged to do more to protect tenants from carbon monoxide poisoning

Owners of buy-to-let properties need to do more to ensure their tenants are protected from possible carbon monoxide poisoning.

According to the latest Carbon Monoxide Trends Report from the Gas Safety Trust, those who live in private rented accommodation are far more likely to suffer from CO poisoning.

Indeed, the report found that the risk of CO poisoning occurring in a property with a private landlord is 50 per cent greater than that in either an owner occupied property or one with a social sector landlord.

Not only could lax gas safety practices cause harm to tenants, landlords may also find it leads them to having to claim on their buy-to-let insurance if they are held liable for damage to tenants' health.

Paul Everall, chief executive of the Local Authority Building Control, which part-funded the research, said: "Although the report shows there is positive news in terms of the working practices of many social housing landlords, it identifies that there is still much to do within the private sector.

"It's important that work continues to raise the safety standards for private landlords and to reduce the CO risk to tenants."

Despite rules in place that require landlords to carry out mandatory annual safety checks on gas appliances, the Gas Safety Trust wants to see more done to ensure high standards of safety in private rented accommodation.

Nigel Dumbrell, head of charitable operations for the trust, commented: "Landlords are not only required by law to have appliances checked for safety on an annual basis, but they do have obligations with respect to the ongoing maintenance of appliances also.

"This is not the same as servicing though, which ensures the appliance remains safe until the next service period. One way of achieving this would be to require landlords to have the appliances serviced annually."