Buying a rental with gas appliances: what to check before you complete

There's no legal requirement for a gas safety check when you buy a house, and a standard homebuyer or building survey won't include one. If you're buying a property to let, it's worth arranging your own gas safety check, or at least asking the right questions about the boiler and appliances, before you complete.

Why the survey won't tell you

A homebuyer or building survey looks at the fabric of the property; it doesn't test the gas appliances or confirm they're safe. The seller has no obligation to provide a gas safety certificate either. So a boiler can look fine, pass a survey's glance, and still be at the end of its life. For a home you'll live in that's a risk; for one you'll let, it's a duty waiting to land on you.

What to check before you commit

• Ask the seller for any recent gas safety record or boiler service history, and the boiler's age and make.
• Look for the signs of a tired or poorly-serviced boiler: rumbling, staining, a pilot that struggles, or a system that's clearly been patched.
• Consider arranging your own gas safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer as part of your due diligence, especially on an older system.
• Factor a boiler replacement into your numbers if the appliance is near the end of its life; it's a common early cost for a new landlord.

The day you let it, the clock starts

The moment you let a property with gas appliances, you take on the landlord's duty: an annual gas safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer, the tenant's copy, and two years of records. Getting a check done at purchase gives you a clean starting point and, if anything is wrong, a chance to fix it or renegotiate before a tenant is relying on it.