By law we must ensure all our homes with a gas supply have a gas safety check each year. Your gas safety inspection is very important, as it will ensure that the fixtures and fittings in your home that use gas are safe. We want to ensure that you and your family are safe in your home.
Please keep the appointment
Once an appointment has been made, it is important that you keep your appointment and allow us access to your home. If you cannot keep your appointment, please let us know in advance. If you do not, our costs increase and our time is wasted. If you are out, we will leave a visiting card with our contact details advising that we called and could not carry out your gas safety check. Please contact as soon as possible, to arrange another appointment. Each year a few people make it very difficult for us to get into their home to do this essential work. This results in us having to take legal action. Please don’t be one of them.
If you regularly miss appointments or won’t let us in, we will have no option but to take legal action in order to gain entry to your property. Should this be required, we will seek to recover our costs from you.
What will happen during the gas safety check?
We will service and repair all the gas appliances that we own. We will also check your own appliances, such as your cooker and list any faults. Should any of your own appliances be deemed as unsafe, we are legally bound to disconnect and isolate them so they are no longer a hazard. Repair or replacement of these appliances and subsequent reconnection are your own responsibility.
We will also check that all of your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are working and give them a clean. If any of your smoke or carbon monoxide alarms are defective then we will replace them for you.
We will explain the gas safety certificate, send you a copy and tell you what we will do next if any extra work is needed. Appliances that are serviced regularly are less likely to break down. Just think how inconvenient it would be if your heating system breaks down unexpectedly – no heating and no hot water!
The gas safety check takes on average around one hour to complete.
What are the dangers of carbon monoxide?
Every year 30-40 people die from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by gas appliances and flues that have not been properly fitted or maintained. When gas does not burn properly, it produces poisonous carbon monoxide.
You can’t see it. You can’t taste it. You can’t even smell it. Carbon monoxide can kill without warning in just a matter of hours. You are most at risk when you are asleep.
The early symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include tiredness, drowsiness, headache and pains in the chest and stomach. You are at risk of this if:
- Your gas appliance is not working properly.
- Your gas appliance has not been checked for safety or maintained regularly.
- There is not enough fresh air in your room (do not block air bricks or other vents).
- Your chimney or flue is blocked.
- You have allowed unqualified people to install or maintain your gas appliances.
If you believe you may have suffered from any symptoms related to carbon monoxide poisoning visit your GP or the hospital at the earliest opportunity.
What should I do if I smell gas?
Turn off your gas supply immediately. Find the lever next to your meter and move it one quarter of the way round, either right or left, until the gas stops.
Once the gas has been turned off, open the windows and doors to let in plenty of fresh air.
Do not turn any electrical switches on or off, light matches or lighters, or smoke.
Go outside and ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. They will come to your home and make it safe.
If the engineer from the National Gas Emergency Service tells you something in your home needs to be repaired, call our contact centre on 0845 2000 102.