A landlord from Plymouth has been fined £11,000 following an investigation into a dangerous gas boiler that was installed in his investment property.
Abdul Manik was prosecuted at Plymouth Magistrates Court by the Health and Safety Executive after it also transpired that he owned a number of flats in the property, all of which had no gas safety certificates.
Ignorance
The council asked Mr Manik to provide gas safety certificates for the property on seven different occasions. Manik ignored each of these requests.
As such, the Health and Safety Executive served an improvement notice on Mr Manik. This required him to undertake gas safety checks and complete relevant maintenance, but this was not done before the stated expiry date.
In December 2014, a gas engineer called out by one of tenants in the property unveiled major issues with the gas boiler and notified the Health and Safety Executive.
The Gas Safe registered engineer classified the boiler as, ‘immediately dangerous.’ This meant that if it was operated or left connected to the gas supply, the boiler would cause serious danger to the property and the life of the inhabitants.
Landlord fined for gas safety negligence
Guilty
Eventually, the boiler was replaced by Plymouth City Council.
Mr Manik pleaded guilty to breaches of Regulation 36 (2) and 36 (3) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and Section 33 (g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Atc 1974. Alongside the fine of £11,000, Maik was told to pay costs of £800.
Speaking after the judgment, health and safety inspector Simon Jones said, ‘landlords have a legal duty to carry out gas safety checks and maintenance which are there to protect their tenants from death or injury.’[1]
‘In this case, Mr Manik ignored repeated requests to carry out the checks and as a result, a serious fault with the gas boiler at one of the flats undetected until discovered by an engineer,’ Jones added.[1]
[1] https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/4/plymouth-landlord-fined-11-000-for-endangering-tenants