The safety checks in your home, and why someone needs to come in

Nobody enjoys arranging to be in. But most of the appointments a landlord asks for are not optional for us: they are checks the law requires on a fixed cycle, and several of them are criminal offences to skip. Here is what each one is, and what you get out of it.

The annual gas safety check#Link to this section, The annual gas safety check

Under regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, a landlord must have every gas appliance and flue in the property checked for safety every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and must keep those appliances and flues in a safe condition.

• You are entitled to a copy of the record. Existing residents within 28 days of the check; new residents before they move in.
• The landlord must keep the records for two years.
• The check can be done up to two months early without losing the original deadline date — so an early appointment does not shorten your cycle, and there is usually more flexibility on timing than people assume.
• It is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive, and breach is a criminal offence.

This is the check with the least room for negotiation, and the reason is carbon monoxide. It has no smell. A faulty appliance can be quietly producing it for weeks before anyone is ill enough to work out why.

The five-yearly electrical report#Link to this section, The five-yearly electrical report

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 require the fixed electrical installation — the wiring, the consumer unit, the sockets and the fixed lighting, not your kettle — to be inspected and tested at least every five years by a qualified person. The result is an Electrical Installation Condition Report, an EICR.

• You are entitled to a copy of the report within 28 days of the inspection.
• If the report says remedial or further investigative work is needed, it must be done within 28 days — or sooner, if the report says so.
• Your council can require a copy within seven days of asking for it.
• These Regulations define "tenancy" to include a licence to occupy, and they cover HMOs. There is no supported housing exclusion. Care homes, hospitals, hospices and student halls are excluded; supported housing is not.

Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms#Link to this section, Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms

Since 1 October 2022, under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022, a landlord must fit at least one smoke alarm on every storey used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room used as living accommodation that contains a fixed combustion appliance — a boiler, a gas fire, a wood burner. Gas cookers are excluded from that duty.

The part worth knowing is the third duty. If you report that an alarm may not be working and it is found not to be in proper working order, the landlord must repair or replace it. Not "will consider". Must. So a beeping, dead or missing alarm is worth reporting the same day, and it is worth reporting in writing.

Fire doors, fire risk assessments and the instructions on the wall#Link to this section, Fire doors, fire risk assessments and the instructions on the wall

For a building with shared parts, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 makes someone the "responsible person" — for the buildings we manage, that is normally Bluebell. The responsible person must carry out and keep up to date a fire risk assessment and maintain the fire precautions that follow from it. Since 1 October 2023, under section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, that assessment and the fire safety arrangements must be recorded in full, in every case, whatever the size of the premises.

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, in force since 23 January 2023, add duties that scale with the building. In every multi-occupied residential building with two or more domestic premises, residents must be given fire safety instructions and information about fire doors. In buildings above 11 metres, fire doors in the common parts must be checked quarterly and flat entrance doors annually on a best-endeavours basis. Buildings of 18 metres or seven storeys and above carry a further set of duties.

Water, and the certificate that does not exist#Link to this section, Water, and the certificate that does not exist

Landlords must assess the risk of legionella bacteria in hot and cold water systems and put proportionate controls in place — that duty comes from the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, with the detail in the Health and Safety Executive’s Approved Code of Practice L8.

For ordinary domestic rented property the HSE’s own position is that this does not need an in-depth survey: a simple risk assessment and sensible controls are normally enough — keeping hot water hot and cold water cold, avoiding stagnation, flushing outlets after a room has been empty, descaling showerheads. There is no statutory requirement for an annual "legionella certificate", and anyone selling one as a legal obligation is selling you something. Shared bathrooms and long empty periods are where this genuinely matters, which is exactly the setting a lot of supported housing is in.

When someone is at your door#Link to this section, When someone is at your door

Letting a stranger into your home is a real thing to ask of someone, and for some people it is a very large thing to ask. So:

1. Ask for identification, every time, including from people you think you recognise. A genuine engineer expects it and will not be offended.
2. If you are not sure, do not open the door. Close it, and call us on the number you already have — not a number the person at the door gives you.
3. Ask what the appointment is for and roughly how long it will take. You are allowed to know.
4. If the timing does not work, say so and ask for another one rather than not answering. Silence is what turns one missed appointment into three.
5. Tell us if you would rather someone was with you, or would rather not be alone with a visitor, or need the appointment at a particular time of day. That is a reasonable request and it is easier to arrange in advance than to fix afterwards.

If access cannot be arranged at all, the check still has to happen — for gas, not doing it is an offence, and for the others it leaves a risk in a building where other people also live. That is why the letters escalate. It is not an attempt to catch anybody out.

What this page does not claim#Link to this section, What this page does not claim

Everything above is what the law requires. This page does not assert that every property in our portfolio is currently compliant with all of it — that is a statement that needs a compliance record behind it, per property, and we will publish it when the record can be shown rather than because it sounds good. Our repairs, damp and mould policy sets out how to report a problem, and the residents page has the routes that work.