Gas Safety Certificate

A failed safety certificate so the property can no longer be rented out. Tell the tenants that they are evicted.

Or do nothing, but advise the tenants that if they complain about the lack of gas safety certificate, they could be charged for back-use of gas and/or evicted.

Presumably the house is nice and toasty ?.

Phone a different engineer for a 2nd opinion.

That was my thought.

expanding a little, I've never been involved in a landlord's cert but can't see why a working meter is a safety issue. No safety check I've ever seen involved checking the actual power of an appliance. Just visual inspection of meter and tightness test.

PS

Fallback plan an anonymous call reporting smell of gas from the meter?

I'm sure that'll get Transco there sharpish, but once they discover there is no leak, will they do anything other than leave?

Those were my thoughts too. It was a too difficult job for the engineer and get another. Explain the meter is faulty.

That's a bit naughty!! But could be effective.

Since you know about it you are complicit with the fraud.

Bill

I beleive the lack of a gas safety check can prevent some legal remedies like the use of a section 21 notice to request that they vacate the property. So doing nothing might reduce your rights as a landlord - not sure if a court would care why the cert wasn't available.

There's no fraud so long as they don't give their supplier figures other than those the meter shows.

Not true!

It's fraud. Used to be called 'obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception'. I imagine you could get away with a little bit.

What have I missed please?

The bit where the tenants give the gas company figures they know to be incorrect in order to gain pecuniary advantage. It's fraud, they should tell the gas supplier that the meter isn't working.

I am still not persuaded that amounts to fraud. Every gas supplier I've ever dealt with has asked simply for a meter reading (or in earlier decades sent a meter reader). I don't see how responding to that with the reading off the meter amounts to fraud.

Fraud by false representation requires a person who "dishonestly makes a false representation" . I don't see how it's false when asked for a meter reading to give the meter reading.

Fraud by failing to disclose information requires a person who "dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose". I'm not aware of a general legal duty on customers to keep track of their meter readings and volunteer the fact that the meter appears to have stopped working. And I can't see anything in our contract with British Gas that imposes such a duty.

Well gas meters do not usually stop working unless they have been tampered with.

Often on the start of a new tenancy in my experience otherwise the supplier gets a bit suspicious that no gas is used ie they have had a final reading off the last tenant and a contract cancelled.

You would not believe some of the things I have seen at work regarding meters.

I questioned the allegation of fraud. I never said I thought the tenants were innocent :)

Would Transco spot many of the fiddles? I suggested the call to get them out on the assumption they would.

Dave

Well if you know who the gas supplier actually is, then surely they need to come over and sort the meter out, who knows what nasties might have been done. Brian