Homeowners Gas Safety Certificates (UK Guide)

Many homeowners want to know more about gas safety certs and whether or not there is a version for homeowners.

First and foremost, unlike landlords gas safety obligations, there is actually no such thing as a Homeowners Gas Safety Certificate.

Nonetheless, there are equivalent steps you can take to ensure your gas boiler/heating system is safe and that you can provide proof of its safety.

Let’s dive in!

What is a Gas Safety Certificate Then?

The closest thing to a gas safety cert is a landlord's Gas Safety Record.

Landlords are legally obliged to have their gas safety inspected annually. 

This relates to any gas appliances or installations that a landlord owns in any of the properties they are renting out.

However, it does not cover any appliances owned by tenants. In those cases, it is up to the tenant to check the appliance. So, if you are renting that may be worth noting.

Once the annual safety checks are complete, the landlord will receive a Gas Safety Record/Certificate from their heating engineer.

This was once known as a certificate or CP12.

Homeowners may obtain a Gas Safety Record if they’d like but it is not a legal obligation in their case.

How to Keep Your Boiler Safe and Prove It

There is a range of safety steps you can take to ensure the safety and longevity of your boiler.

Moreover, there are also ways to prove it.

Key Boiler Safety Tips: 

• Annual boiler service
  The most important step in ensuring the safety of your boiler is having it serviced annually. When a heating engineer services a boiler, they may spot issues before they become larger and more costly problems. Fixing issues early on is a great way of keeping your boiler safe and prolonging its lifespan. Boiler servicing may also involve having certain components of your boiler cleaned (which can be another aspect of keeping a boiler healthy).
  
  

• Bleed your radiators
  One way of improving your heating system’s life expectancy and, ultimately, keeping your boiler safe is to bleed your radiators annually, or more often if deemed necessary. Ideally, it should generally be done at the beginning of winter. Bleeding radiators  the process of freeing air bubbles inside radiators that have accumulated over months or years. The reason you want to do this is because those air bubbles can result in cold patches at the top of your radiators, lowering your heating system’s efficiency. This, in turn, can prolong your boiler's safety and lifespan. If you’d like to learn more, check out our ‘How to Bleed a Radiator’ article.
  
  

• Powerflush
  This is another way of keeping your heating system healthy. This is a process whereby you flush sludge out of your heating system. However, if you add a central heating inhibitor annually or have a magnetic filter installed, a power flush may not even be necessary.
  
  

• Keep your boiler clean
  Don’t forget to regular dust off or wipe-down the exterior of your boiler. Over time, this can prevent dust from accumulating and eventually making its way into the vales, tubes, and pipework of your boiler. Never carry out any internal cleaning. If deemed necessary, a heating engineer will do this as part of servicing your boiler.
  
  

• Use it regularly
  You may understandably think that the more you use the boiler, the sooner it will run into issues. However, this isn’t necessarily true. Turning on your boiler outside of the winter months can be helpful. This is because it can help to prevent your system from clogging up due to a lack of use. In the warmer parts of the year (including the summertime), we recommend turning your heating system on for about twenty minutes a day.
  
  

• Monitor your pressure gauge
  A boiler should generally have a pressure of 1 bar to 1.5 bars. However, we suggest double checking with your boiler manufacturer’s guide, as this will tell you the ideal pressure range for your specific appliance. You should check your pressure gauge often to ensure it is in the desired range. That way, if it falls under or rises above the ideal range, you’ll hopefully spot it before it potentially causes more issues. Thankfully, low boiler pressure is usually easy enough to fix DIY, as is explained in our ‘Boiler losing pressure?’ guide. Unfortunately, if your boiler pressure repeatedly drops even after you initially fix it, this likely means there is a leak, which a heating engineer will need to fix. We also suggest checking the pipes for signs of leakage in general, along with monitoring your pressure gauge.
  
  

• Pipe insulation
  You may also want to hire a professional to insulate any exposed boiler pipes. The better insulated they are, the less work your heating systems need to put in to perform as expected. Moreover, insulation can prevent pipes from freezing over when temperatures drop below freezing. This is a relatively low-costing way to keep your boiler safe and healthy for longer.

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Proving the Safety of Your Boiler

So, let’s say you’ve taken a whole host of steps to keep your boiler safe.

You get your boiler serviced annually, you use it often, bleed your radiators and more.

How do you prove it?

Well, as mentioned earlier, homeowners’ do have the option of obtaining a Gas Safety Record.

You may want one for the satisfaction of having a record of your boiler’s safety levels.

Alternatively, you may want one if you are selling your home.

After all, adding such things to your ‘property’s résumé’ can increase its appeal to potential buyers and may even increase its monetary value, even if just a tad.

Please note that a heating engineer is not legally obliged to provide you with a Gas Safety Record.

However, you may find it easy enough to obtain if you are on good terms with them and make a query in advance.

You may want to make a query when you first contact them about the primary reason for their visit, whether that be for boiler servicing or boiler repair work.

A Gas Safety Record includes the following:

• Description and location of every appliance or flue that the engineer inspected.
  
  

• The results were found regarding any operational safety checks that were carried out on your gas appliances.
  
  

• The heating engineer’s name, registration number and signature.
  
  

• The date of the gas checks in question.
  
  

• Your property’s address.
  
  

• Details regarding any safety defects that were found along with what actions were taken to fix these defects or actions that are required for the future.

Of course, aside from a Gas Safety Record, a heating engineer will sign off to confirm that they have serviced your boiler as part of its annual servicing.

After all, this would be needed for reasons such as proving to your manufacturer that your boiler is being serviced each year.

This is important considering that pretty much all boiler brands require that you have your boiler serviced annually in order for your warranty/guarantee to remain valid.

Sometimes you must have a heating engineer from the brand in question undertake your boiler’s annual servicing to maintain your warranty/guarantee.

However, in other cases, any Gas Safe Register engineer will do. But make sure to double-check this before booking a boiler servicing.

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