Landlord in court for endangering young mother and her child
A Plymouth landlord has been fined after a dangerous gas oven was installed in the house a young mother was renting from him with her child.
What happened?
Giles Boardman was asked to provide a gas safety certificate for the property on several occasions, but when he failed to do so, Plymouth City Council alerted the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Mr Boardman was then served with an Improvement Notice, which required him to provide a landlords’ gas safety check – but he still hadn’t done so by the time the notice had expired.
Later that year, Mr Boardman called in an engineer who found issues with the gas controls that controlled the gas flow to the oven.
It was labelled as ‘immediately dangerous’ by the engineer, stating that it could cause immediate danger to life or property if kept connected to the gas supply. The oven has since been replaced.
What was the outcome?
Giles Boardman was fined a total of £4,050 and ordered to pay costs of £513, after pleading guilty to breaches of gas safety regulations and a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
HSE Inspector, Simon Jones, 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.”
If you have been affected by an incident such as this, and you would like expert advice, contact Hampson Hughes Solicitors today on 0800 888 6888 or email
Source: View article
