As an estate agent, are you clued up about the latest carbon monoxide alarm regulations?
If you have a lot of properties on your books that are occupied by tenants, it’s absolutely vital that you know your legal responsibilities when it comes to something as serious as carbon monoxide AKA the “the silent killer”.
For instance, did you know that your risk of being exposed to carbon monoxide poisoning is 50% higher in a rented property? Scary but true.
That’s why the newest regulations kicked into place on the 1st December 2015, and introduced the provision of long-life carbon monoxide (CO) alarms in privately rented homes.
I’m going to go into each new regulation in more depth down below, so you know all the facts.
Regulation 1: Duty of care
The duty of care regarding the provision of carbon monoxide alarms has been moved to landlords, and applies to all landlords in Scotland who are renting out properties that contain fixed combustion appliances of any kind – with one exception of appliances that are exclusively used for cooking.
To help make more sense of the situation, the Scottish Government issued the following advice to help landlords prepare for the shift:
“Landlords… should be aware of their personal responsibility to ensure any house they rent meets the repairing standard which now includes this new duty in relation to carbon monoxide detection.”
Regulation 2: All fuel types now covered
The old legislation meant that landlords may not have been legally obligated to provide a CO alarm if the appliance was using oil or coal as fuel, however, these new regulations state that CO detectors must be fitted to protect tenants no matter which fuel type is used.
Bear in mind, these are not just extra regulations to make things more difficult for the landlord – it’s to ensure tenants are kept safe from CO poisoning.
Regulation 3: Mandatory for ALL rented properties
The old Scottish regulations covered HMOs (homes of multiple occupancy) which made fitting a carbon monoxide detector mandatory in any room containing a gas appliance. This has now moved to cover ALL rented properties – HMOs or otherwise.
Worryingly, I often found it common to ask when I was carrying out annual gas safety checks and issuing CP12s, to ask where the CO detector was, only to be told: “Oh, it’s in the kitchen.” — Sure enough, not only was it in the kitchen, the batteries had usually been removed and used for something else.
Regulation 4: Long life batteries
Finally, landlords renting out private properties in Scotland must provide a carbon monoxide detector with an integrated long-life battery – so, in other words, making the battery impossible to remove when tenants’ TV remote needs a replacement and they don’t want to make the trip to the local shop.
This also means that if you’re currently providing CO detectors with removable batteries, they must be exchanged immediately for replacements with sealed, long-life batteries. These batteries are designed to keep running for the entire working life of the detector.
Be aware of compensation claim companies
I just wanted to give you a heads up here that there are some unscrupulous companies out there who often try to prey on the mistakes of letting agents and estate agents by offering no-win, no-fee claims if tenants think they have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from wrongly fitted CO alarms (or lack of alarms).
Here’s an example of one such company, and you must bear in mind that tenants will be within their legal rights to seek compensation if they do find their health compromised by the presence of carbon monoxide in their rented homes.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve found this blog useful, and you may want to double check all of the properties on your books are covered by these new regulations – there’s no harm in being vigilant, and it will stop any properties falling through the cracks.
If you have any specific questions, or need help with any other heating related issues, please don’t hesitate to get in touch me directly – I’m here to help!
