If you are a landlord you have a legal and moral obligation to protect your tenants in any way you can.
One of the most important safety obligations you have is to have every gas appliance in your property or properties serviced by a qualified gas safe engineer.
Boiler servicing is not only the right thing to do and helps to keep your clients safe but also ensures you do not fall foul of the legislation governing landlords in the UK.
In this article, we will look at why it is so important that landlords are aware of their responsibilities regarding boiler services Glasgow.
Tenant Safety
At the end of the day nothing is more important than the safety of your tenants. Boiler servicing not only reduces the risk of any catastrophic incidents taking place but also reassures your tenants that you are taking their safety seriously. Tenant satisfaction is a nice feeling but also saves you the hassle of finding a new tenant every few months and the associated effort and money it involves.
Boiler servicing protects tenant safety in a number of different ways, including protecting you against carbon monoxide leak and reducing the threat of a boiler breakdown in the heart of winter.
In terms of tenant satisfaction, Gas Safe engineers carry out maintenance during a boiler service that can improve performance and keep their energy bills to a minimum. If a tenant finds themselves paying far more for the heating on a monthly basis than they should for a property of their size, it is understandable that they might decide to move on, leaving you with the headache of finding a new one.
Legal Regulations
As a responsible landlord having the boiler in your rented property serviced is something you would do voluntarily, even if it was a legal requirement.
As it happens, it is a legal requirement. In the UK, the law is very clear about whose responsibility it is to maintain and service gas boilers in rental properties and that is the landlord.
Just some of the responsibilities that fall under this obligation include having a yearly gas safety check carried out on all gas appliances within a property and keeping a record of the certificates provided by the engineer who conducts them.
Failing to do so can lead to voided landlord insurance and potential loss of income if a tenant decides to withhold rent until the service or repairs are carried out, something they have the legal right to do.
Protect Investment
Boilers are an expensive asset to replace or repair and having to fork out for either can reduce the value of your overall investment.
In order to protect your investment, you should do the following things as a landlord.
Firstly you should arrange for a boiler service to be conducted annually be a professional Gas Safe Engineer. You should always communicate with your tenants to let them know when the gas safe engineer will be coming to their property to conduct the service.
