Plymouth landlord fined for endangering tenants
Tuesday 2nd September 2014
The landlord of a property in Plymouth risked the lives of a young mother and her child, by providing a dangerous gas oven installed in the house a court has heard.
Giles Boardman was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at Plymouth Magistrates on 29 August following an investigation.
HSE began inquiries when Plymouth City Council alerted them to the lack of a gas safety certificate for the property in Dickiemoor Lane. The council had asked him to provide a certificate on several occasions.
HSE served an Improvement Notice on Boardman, requiring him to provide a landlords’ gas safety check but this had not been done by the notice expiry date.
In April, 2014, an engineer called in by Boardman, found problems with the gas controls that controlled the gas flow for oven and notified HSE. The oven was classified by the Gas Safe registered engineer as “immediately dangerous”, meaning if operated or left connected to the gas supply it could cause an immediate danger to life or property. The oven has now been replaced.
Giles Boardman of Wheatridge, Plympton, Plymouth pleaded guilty to two breaches of gas safety regulations and a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act. He was fined a total of £4,050 and ordered to pay costs of £513.
HSE Inspector, Simon Jones, speaking after the hearing, said: “Landlords have a legal duty to carry out gas safety checks which are there to protect their tenants from death or injury.
“In this case, Mr Boardman ignored repeated requests to carry out the checks and as a result, a serious fault with the oven went undetected until discovered by an engineer.”
Further information about landlords’ responsibilities for gas supply can be found on the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/gas/landlords
http://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/news_features/Plymouth-landlord-fined-for-endangering-tenants
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