Legal advice as a tenant regarding gas safety check and gas capped without warning

[dtlew1984]

Hello Good afternoon i'm just looking to see please if anyone could advise me on my legal rights around my gas being capped by my housing association yesterday 

 

We received a card around 4 weeks ago by the company who my housing association use to do the yearly gas safety check saying we missed their visit something we did not know about and no letter was received.  

 

We then called to make a new appointment which was supposed to have been yesterday but i had completely forgotten about it until a reminder popped up on my phone yesterday morning. We had a funeral to attend to yesterday so called the number and explained everything to the lady and she advised it was not a problem and a new appointment could be rearranged.

 

We attended the funeral and came home to a card stating that they had attended the property today and due to no access the engineer had capped the gas supply we had no hot water or heating, i have 4 young children so as you can imagine in november its chilly and we need heating and the children need to wash. 

 

I Called the company to be told it was done legally because we had missed 3 visits ??? when i questioned her and also mentioned my call in the morning she then back tracked and said oh yes you have missed 2 and called. She said nothing will be done now until monday so we have to wait 2-3 days for him to come back out to uncapp the gas 

 

Today i found last years gas safety certificate and was shocked to see that its still in date until the 12th December 2019 so my gas is still legally fine and in date so could someone please tell me where i stand on this situation please im at a loss on what to do ?

 

Thank You

[dx100uk]

ring and demand they immediately send someone around to uncap the supply as the current certificate is still valid.

 

dx

 

[dtlew1984]

Thanks DX we have already tried that this morning to be told its emergency call out only and they won't authorize the call out its a joke 

[Good Sister]

Hi dtlew1984, sorry for being late to the party and I hope your gas is now back up and running.

 

I had this issue myself a few years back, two years on the trot in fact, should be a long interesting thread on this board about it last dated July/August 2015 hopefully.

 

To summarise, there was no legal requirement to cap off gas for non-access. Having a look on the legislation for The Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998, this still appears to be the case. Link attached for your perusal http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/2451/regulation/36/made

 

Some HA policies will state that they 'may' cap off gas if it has been passed 12 months since last inspection and the tenant has been un-cooperative, but this does not apply in your case.

 

Once your gas is sorted out, you should make a formal written complaint to your HA, outlining the problem, the impact it caused and assurances it will not happen again. Make sure you mention that your current certificate was still in date and remember to state that there is no legal requirement to cap gas under The Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulation 1998 - they are no doubt relying on you not to know the relevant legislation.

 

I'm not sure if you can name your HA on here, I'm no longer with the HA I had this issue with, but phrases like "legal requirement" and "three attempts" sound very familiar and are quite troubling...

 

All the best,

GS.