Gas safety

Your landlord's duty

Derby City Council as your landlord has a legal duty under the Gas Safety Installation and Use Regulations 1998 to make sure all gas supplies and appliances in your home are safe. Derby Homes carries out this gas safety work on behalf of the Council.

To comply with this legal requirement, we use an in-house team of registered gas engineers to carry out safety checks, service appliances and respond to breakdowns when they happen.

Our aims are always to:

• Ensure your safety and the safety of others in your home
• Comply with our legal responsibility

Quality Control

We regularly inspect and audit the work our contractors do and our own in-house gas engineers to maintain the highest possible standard. We are also independently inspected by Gas Safe.

Just so you know who’s calling

Every gas engineer arriving at your home to do work - whether from the in-house team or from a contractor – will have a photo identity card. You should not let them in unless they show you this and you are satisfied they are genuine.

If you have any doubts about anyone calling at your home, contact us.

Routine gas safety checks

Every year, the gas supply and every gas appliance in your home will be checked for safety.

Appliances which are part of a furnished tenancy and the responsibility of Derby Homes, will be serviced approximately every 11 months (so that the safety certificate is renewed before its 12 month expiry date).

Your own gas cooker and any other gas appliances you have in the property are your responsibility to service, but they will be included in our overall safety check.

Some properties only have electricity for heating and cooking and there is no gas. In this case, we are still required by law to certify that no gas supply has been installed since we last checked.

Breakdown response timescales

We will respond to gas breakdowns in accordance with the priorities set out in the legislation. Gas appliances usually affect the heating and/or hot water systems in your home. Our response timescales under normal circumstances are to respond within:

• 24 hours during winter
• 72 hours during summer

Sometimes it may no be possible to fix an appliance on the initial visit, but we will ensure that the repair is completed as soon as possible. If the breakdown leaves you without any other form of heating in your home, we will provide you with temporary equipment to use.

Our response service to breakdowns includes call-outs at any time of day and includes emergencies. Emergencies are leaks of gas and fumes and uncontainable water leaks.

Allowing access to your property

The law requires Derby Homes to enter every property before the expiry date of the previous certificate to carry out the safety check. While we will make every effort to provide these services at a time to suit you, we need your help to gain access to your property.

To ensure we successfully complete your safety check we will:

• send you letters advising of your appointment
• encourage you to call us at any time during office hours if you need to rearrange your appointment
• leave calling cards if you are not at home when we call
• send further letters to remind how urgent safety checks are and to confirm new appointments

Where we have been unable to gain access for any reason we will:

• place notices on your door to confirm the appointments you have missed and to set follow-up appointment dates
• attempt to contact you by phone
• attempt to contact you through other teams, such as your housing office
• make all reasonable attempts to co-operate with any specific requirements you have to allow us access to your home
• continue to call by appointment to ensure at least three attempts are made to gain access to carry out the work before the expiry date of the previous certificate
• take legal action if necessary to enforce access after the expiry date

Occasionally, we have difficulty gaining access to some homes. This costs us time and money, and sometimes leaves us with no choice but to apply for a court injunction to gain entry. We'd much rather it not get to this stage and really appreciate your help with our service and safety checking programme.

All tenants have a responsibility to allow access for this work to be completed and it is part of your tenancy agreement to allow us access. If we need to apply to the courts we will request the court to award costs to be paid by the tenant. This is usually in excess of £500. We may also take action under your tenancy agreement to repossess your home if you continue to breach your tenancy agreement by not allowing access.

To re-arrange an appointment please call our Customer Service Team.

Installing your own gas appliances

If you would like to connect any of your own gas appliances, you will need to obtain a permit from us before starting any work.

If this work is carried out you will then need to send in your installation certificate or safety certificate to your Local Housing Office so it can be updated on our database.

You must not install any gas appliance yourself as this is illegal unless you are qualified and registered. You must use a registered gas safe installer to carry out the work. You can find details of registered gas installers at www.gassaferegister.co.uk

Cookers and other appliances

If you have your own cooker or other gas appliance we strongly recommend you have them safety checked at least once a year by a registered gas safe engineer.