4. Aims and objectives
4.1 The aim of the policy is to:
4.2 Ensure the safety of its employees, tenants, customers, and anyone else who may be impacted by our work.
4.3 Our primary objective is to ensure that customers, contractors, staff, and visitors remain safe in our premises (both domestic and non-domestic). Failure to properly discharge our legal responsibilities may also result in:
► Prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, or Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.
► Regulatory intervention by the RSH.
► Reputational damage and loss of stakeholder confidence
4.4 Set out how B3Living will meets its legal obligations.
4.5 Comply with the law so as to avoid prosecution, avoid regulatory judgements and to avoid civil claims.
4.6 To reduce the risk of carbon monoxide exposure by keeping relevant gas fittings safe and providing a means of detection where required.
4.7 Managing gas safety also plays a part in meeting our strategic objectives for mitigating fire risks as defined in the Fire Risk Management System (FRMS).
4.8 Preventing and Controlling Risks from Gas
4.8.1 A gas inspection will be carried out on the landlord’s gas supply and appliances at least once every 12 months, the landlord’s appliances will also be serviced.
4.8.2 The Regulations allows Landlords to set anniversary dates for servicing to be carried out up to 2 months before the anniversary date. For services carried out within 60 days of the service falling due the service date remains the same. For services completed outside of the 60 days requires a new anniversary date to be created, this includes when the boiler is renewed or following a new tenant (the term tenant is used in legislation and has a specific meaning) moving in, or a non-compliance with servicing.
4.8.3 B3Living has in place a 3 Star gas servicing contract with a Gas Safe registered contractor and all engineers working on the contract are also Gas Safe registered. The contractor is required to supply evidence each year of their continued registration.
4.8.4 B3Living also has a third-party Quality Control inspection service in place to monitor the quality of its contractor’s work. All new boiler installations are inspected for quality and a 5% of repairs and servicing are inspected for quality control.
4.8.5 Records of Landlords Gas Safety checks (LGSR) are also reviewed as part of the quality control inspection and checked for accuracy and any errors or omissions.
4.8.6 The gas engineer will ensure all gas appliances and related pipework are safe; they will shut down any appliance that is unsafe.
4.8.7 The engineer will also inspect those gas appliances that are not the responsibility of B3Living (such as a gas cooker) if it is unsafe, it will be shut down and provide information to the customer to call a service engineer.
4.8.8 Following the completion of all relevant inspection and testing the engineer will complete a Landlords Gas Safety Record (LGSR). A paper copy will be issued to the customer within 28 days of the inspection being completed.
4.9 Record Keeping
4.9.1 The Regulations require a landlord to retain copies of any LGSR for at least two years as described in 4.8.1 above.
4.9.2 B3Living, in line with operating under the regime described in
4.8.2, will keep the LGSR until at least two further safety checks have been completed. To meet its obligations under Regulation 36 (A) B3Living will retain a copy of any LGSR for at least three years.
4.10 Asset Data
4.10.1 B3 Living acknowledge that to meet our obligations we must maintain a robust approach to identifying the assets and components for which we have responsibility.
4.10.2 We will:
► Maintain an up-to-date Master Database of all properties that have a gas supply including those that may not have a live gas supply but can be readily connected to the gas grid.
► For each relevant property, record and maintain up to date data confirming which of the appliances within the scope of this Policy exist and do not exist and the organisation’s associated responsibility.
► Where a requirement exists, hold data and certification relating to at a minimum the last three Safety Checks and the next due date.
► Where a requirement does not exist hold appropriate evidence.
► Maintain current and up to date records of remedial works for the entire portfolio, which will detail all recommendations from the Safety Checks. These records will include (i) Address and risk profile of the property, (ii) Detail of the work item required, (iii) Priority and target completion date/s, (iv) Person responsible, (v) Date of when the work was completed and (vi) Who it was signed-off by and (vii) Evidence of completion.
Further details will be contained within the GOHSMP.
4.10.3 The approach to data control will be documented in the Data Management Protocol and GOHSMP.
4.11 Tenants Responsibilities
4.11.1 As part of their tenancy conditions tenants must allow B3Living access to carry out essential works, including the annual gas inspection and servicing. Failure to allow access can result in action being taken against the tenant to grant access, including as a last resort obtaining a court injunction.
4.11.2 B3Living will take every step deemed reasonable to work with the tenant to gain access before taking any court action.
4.11.3 Details of the steps to gain access can be found in the GOHSMP.
4.12 Communication
4.12.1 At commencement of a tenancy B3Living issues the new tenant with a copy of the LGSR test certificate undertaken whilst the property was empty and arrange for a further LGSR to be completed at time of occupation by the new tenant.