Gas Servicing & Safety

Housing Services is responsible for carrying out an annual safety check of all gas appliances belonging to the Council in our housing stock.

 

These should be reported at once and directly to Transco on 0800 111 999. If you smell gas do not switch on any electric appliances and do not strike any lights.

Faulty appliances can cause explosions and can also give off poisonous carbon monoxide fumes – with possibly fatal consequences. We therefore have a legal duty to make sure all of our gas appliances are checked every year by properly qualified gas engineers.

Council tenants also have a legal duty to allow engineers in to their homes to carry out these annual checks. If you do not allow access, we have the legal right to break in to do the work, and to charge you for the cost of any damage that results.

Once a year

When the safety check is due we will deliver a card to you, suggesting an appointment time. If this is not convenient we ask you to contact us to arrange an alternative time.

Our engineers will then call round at the arranged time to do the work. If you are not in, the engineer will leave a second card, asking you to contact us to arrange another time.

If we still hear nothing, we then issue a formal ‘final notice’, warning you that we will start proceedings to gain entry to the property. If in the end we are forced to break in with the presence of the police to carry out the safety checks, you will be charged for the cost of gaining entry.

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas, which has no colour, taste or smell. Exposure to even low levels can cause brain damage or death.

The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are similar to those of flu and other viral infections. They include drowsiness, weakness, headaches, nausea and pains in the chest. If anyone in your home has any of these symptoms while a gas appliance is being used, stop using the appliance until it has been checked, and consult a doctor.

Carbon monoxide poisoning can affect the way the brain works, so people affected can’t always tell that anything is wrong or take any action before it’s too late. Carbon monoxide can build up to lethal levels in a home because:

 

 

 

Go to www.corgi-gas.com for more information about gas safety.