Forum Spotlight: Struggling to gain access for inspection

3 Oct 2019 02:53 PM

Our landlord forum is a good way for members to share their experiences with each other and help each other out.

Our Forum Spotlight this week shines the light on a question a landlord posted on our forum recently regarding gaining access to her property.

The issue

The landlord was very concerned because they needed to gain access to their property in order to carry out a gas safety inspection.

However, they were struggling to gain access to the property in order to allow a gas safe engineer to carry out the inspection.

The tenant was not replying at all to the landlord or the landlord’s agent, and the landlord, also mindful of the tenants right to quiet enjoyment-wanted to know how best to proceed.

What we advised the member

One member on our forum was able to help this landlord out with their question. They suggested that the landlord write a letter to the tenant, giving them 24hours notice and posting the letter through the letter box. They also suggested taking a picture or videoing this, as this would act as ‘evidence’ further down the line.

If the tenants responds, then a time can be arranged.

If they still do not respond, then the RLA recommends repeating this process three times-so writing three letters (if it came to this) expressing the need to carry out the gas safety inspection at the property.

As long as the landlord has never been denied access to the property prior to this, then after three written attempts to gain access (with evidence) the landlord can carry out the gas safety check even if they have not heard back from the tenant. It is only if the landlord has been denied access previously (or the tenant does not let the landlord in when they get to the property) then the landlord would not be able to enter the property.

Support our Gas Safety case

The RLA is currently supporting a landlord with an appeal around their attempt to regain possession of their property using Section 21. However, the landlord struggled to do so due to an issue with a gas safety certificate-which forms some of the ‘prescribed information’ that landlords in England are required to give to tenants at the start of a tenancy. You can read more about the appeal on the crowd justice page here.

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