Gas safety in an HMO: what changes for you

What counts as an HMO, and why it changes your gas safety duties

An HMO in England is a property rented by at least three people who are not from one household and who share facilities such as a bathroom or kitchen. Whether your property meets that description decides more than the label on your paperwork: it brings HMO management duties and, in many cases, a licence, and it puts your annual gas safety record in front of the local housing authority as well as your tenants. The definition is separate from licensing — a property can be an HMO without needing a licence, and it can need a licence under a local scheme even if it is not a large HMO.

• A large HMO needs a mandatory licence: rented to five or more people forming more than one household, sharing toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities, with at least one tenant paying rent.
• The Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018 removed the old three-storey test, so smaller buildings now fall inside mandatory licensing.
• Councils can run additional or selective licensing schemes of their own, so ask the local housing authority rather than assuming.
• Renting out an unlicensed HMO in England that needs a licence can bring an unlimited fine.

The HMO difference: the council reads your certificate too

In a single let, the gas safety record sits between you and your tenant. In a licensed HMO there is a third recipient. Schedule 4 of the Housing Act 2004 makes it a mandatory licence condition that, where gas is supplied to the HMO, the licence holder produces to the local housing authority every year, for inspection, a gas safety certificate obtained within the last 12 months.

On top of that, the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 require the manager of an HMO to supply the local housing authority with the latest gas appliance test certificate received from a recognised engineer within 7 days of a written request. A recognised engineer here means one approved under regulation 3 of the 1998 Regulations — in practice, Gas Safe registered.

The duties that do not change

The 1998 Regulations put the duty on you as landlord, and they cover the gas appliances, fittings and flues you provide for tenants. None of that softens in an HMO — it simply applies to more rooms and more people. Our guide to landlord gas safety in England sets out the core duties in full.

• An annual safety check on each appliance and flue, by a Gas Safe registered engineer — within 12 months of installing a new appliance or flue, and every 12 months after that.
• Maintenance and repair of appliances, flues and pipework provided for tenants by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
• Responsibility cannot be passed to the tenant through the tenancy agreement.
• Keep each record for two years.
• Give a copy to every existing tenant within 28 days of the check, and to any new tenant before they move in.
• Issue the record on completion of the check — it is not delayed because defects were found. It is a living document, supplemented with records of the follow-up work.
• Make the record available on request to any person in lawful occupation who may be affected.

Tenants' own appliances are their responsibility, along with a flue serving only that appliance. HSE still recommends including all flues connected to gas appliances in the check — in a shared house, a flue running through another tenant's room is everyone's problem.

Communal boilers, plant rooms and where the record goes on the wall

Appliances, fittings and flues in communal areas that tenants may use fall within your duties. Where a building has a communal boiler serving several dwellings, you must have it maintained by a Gas Safe registered engineer and included in the annual check. A locked cupboard does not put it outside the rules.

HSE allows a practical route for those appliances. Where a gas appliance is not in any room occupied by a tenant — a plant room or a communal cupboard, for instance — the record may be displayed in a prominent place instead of handed to each person, provided the notice states that any tenant can request an individual copy and where to get it. Tell tenants where that notice is at the start of a new tenancy.

Can a gas appliance sit in a room used for sleeping?

A gas appliance may only sit in a room used for sleeping in limited cases, and the test under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended (England) turns on how the room is actually used — not on what it was called on the floor plan. In an HMO the question comes up more than anywhere else, because bedsits and converted let rooms are the whole model.

• Since 31 October 1998, a room converted for use as sleeping accommodation must not contain a gas fire, gas space heater or gas water heater (including a boiler) of over 14 kW gross input unless it is room-sealed.
• Appliances of 14 kW gross input or less, and any instantaneous water heater, must not be in sleeping accommodation unless room-sealed or fitted with an atmosphere-sensing device.
• A room used as a bedroom before 1998 that contains such an appliance needs a risk assessment to decide whether it may still be used as a bedroom.

Judging whether an appliance is room-sealed, carrying out that risk assessment and moving an appliance are all work for a Gas Safe registered engineer. If you are converting a reception room into a let room and the boiler stays put, raise it with your engineer before the tenancy starts rather than at the next annual check. Relocating an appliance is part of a wider job and belongs in a new boiler installation quote, after a survey.

Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms since October 2022

• At least one smoke alarm on each storey of the property that has a room used as living accommodation.
• A carbon monoxide alarm in any room used as living accommodation that contains a fixed combustion appliance — gas cookers are excluded.
• A fixed combustion appliance means fixed apparatus burning fuel to generate heat, such as a gas or oil boiler or a log burner.
• Alarms must be repaired or replaced once you are told they are faulty. The local housing authority enforces this with a remedial notice and a financial penalty.
• The regulations do not apply to student halls of residence.

In a house where one let room holds the boiler, that room needs a CO alarm. Tenants change often in an HMO, so a quick alarm test at each change of occupancy saves an argument later.

What if a tenant will not let the engineer in?

With five or six separate lettings in one building, one closed door can stall the whole check. You must be able to show all reasonable steps were taken, and force must not be used to gain entry. HSE inspectors look for repeated attempts, not one missed knock.

• Leave a notice that an attempt was made, with contact details.
• Write to the tenant explaining the check is a legal requirement and is for their own safety.
• Offer the tenant the chance to arrange their own appointment.
• Keep a record of all correspondence.
• Build access arrangements into the tenancy agreement from the start.

Booking all rooms in one visit is the simplest fix, and it is why we work seven days a week, including evenings and weekends, across London, Essex, Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire and Middlesex. If you are lining up checks on an HMO, our landlord gas safety certificate service covers every appliance in the property and the CP12 is emailed to you the same day.

Sources

• GOV.UK — House in multiple occupation licence
• Housing Act 2004, Schedule 4 (mandatory licence conditions)
• The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006
• HSE — Gas safety check records and what to keep
• HSE — Gas safety checks: who needs them?
• HSE — Gas safety: landlords and letting agents FAQ
• HSE — Gas safety checks: what if…?
• GOV.UK — Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022: guidance for landlords and tenants
• The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 36
• Ofgem — The resale of gas and electricity: guidance on maximum resale price