Landlords

Whether you’re a seasoned buy-to-let investor with a large property portfolio, or a you own a second home that’s rented out seasonally, you’ll need to ensure all your legal responsibilities and obligations are met. But more importantly, ensuring your tenants are happy with everything running smoothly – which includes all those plumbing, gas and heating needs – helps make you life much easier.

At Town Gas we also understand that running a property business is hard work and can be time consuming. That’s where we can help, especially if you’re not always around to answer emergency calls or deal personally with any issues that need urgent attention.

We work with a wide range of landlords across Hampshire and Dorset managing their property needs. This leaves you to focus on the important job of running your business and generating a profit from rental incomes. Time is money so why not let our friendly and experience team of qualified engineers help take things off that ‘to do list?’

Who is Identified as a Landlord?
By simple definition a landlord is anyone who rents out a property they own under a lease or a licence that is shorter than seven years. Those duties apply to a wide range of accommodation, occupied under a lease or a licence, which includes but not exclusively, residential premises provided for rent by:

• Local Authorities
• Housing Associations
• Private Sector Landlords
• Housing Co-operatives
• Hostels

The Law and You
The law is clear that if you are a landlord and rent out your property, whether it’s with full time tenants, letting out a spare room, or letting your second home for a couple of weeks each year, legally you’re still a landlord and you have legal responsibilities to ensure the health and safety of your tenant by keeping the property safe and free from health hazards. It is therefore your responsibility to identify and assess the risks, and implement any necessary measures to control any risk. Town gas can carry out these risk assessments and advise accordingly.

Landlord Obligations
Landlords have numerous obligations to their tenants. From deposits, to carbon monoxide, licencing or eviction of harassment. A landlord with multiple properties has a to juggle many things and keep up to date with ever changing legal requirements.

We take the hassle out of those plumbing and heating obligations, ensuring you’re fully compliant, that appliances are safe and the heating and plumbing systems are working efficiently. We understand regulatory small print in service contracts and work with lots of landlords, large and small from across the New Forest.

Town Gas is able to provide the following support:

• Gas Safety
  Where there are any gas appliances in the property provided by the landlord, the landlord must ensure that annual gas safety checks are carried out. These checks must be carried out by a gas fitter/engineer who is registered on the Gas Safety Register.
  
  A copy must be given to the tenant before the tenant moves in and the check must have been carried out within the 12 months before the new tenant takes up occupation. Checks must be done annually at no more than 12 month intervals and copies of all certificates for checks must be handed over to the tenant. If landlords fail to do this they may lose their Section 21 rights in England as of 1st October 2015.
• Carbon Monoxide and alarms in non-HMOs
  Landlords in England are required to provide smoke alarms on every floor of their property and a carbon monoxide alarm in every room with a solid fuel source. This applies to most tenancies but further guidance on exceptions and best practice is available from Government websites.
• Legionnaires Disease
  Legionnaires' disease is a potentially fatal form of pneumonia caused by the inhalation of small droplets of contaminated water containing Legionella. All man-made hot and cold water systems are likely to provide an environment where Legionella can grow. Where conditions are favourable (ie suitable growth temperature range; water droplets (aerosols) produced and dispersed; water stored and/or recirculated; some 'food' for the organism to grow such as rust, sludge, scale, biofilm etc) then the bacteria may multiply thus increasing the risk of exposure. It is a simple fact that the organism will colonise both large and small systems so both require risks to be managed effectively.

Inspection Report
Our comprehensive Inspection Report is perfect for both landlords or any new buyers wishing to have peace of mind before purchasing their new property.

To find out why more landlords are choosing Town Gas for all their property heating and plumbing needs, get in touch and we’d be delighted to discuss things in more detail.

Hassle free plumbing and gas safety by people you can trust.