Gas safety for council tenants

If you smell gas, call 0800 111 999 immediately (24 hours)

Gas maintenance and repairs, gas safety checks, carbon monoxide detection and safety, before your gas safety check, your gas safety check appointment, what you can and cannot install in your home.

On this page:

Gas leaks

If you smell gas or suspect you have a gas leak, freephone the National Gas Emergency Service immediately on 0800 111 999, any time of the day or night, any day of the year.

You should then:

turn the gas supply off at the meter by moving the handle at the gas meter to the horizontal position
open all windows and doors to allow any gas to escape.

Do not use any naked flames, like matches or lighters, and do not turn any sockets or lights on or off as this could ignight any gas leaks.

If you have no gas, or have high or low pressure, phone the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.

Gas supply

If you have no gas supply, check if the gas isolation valve (the handle on the gas meter) is switched on or off. If it's horizontal, it is off. Turn it upwards to turn it back on.

Gas fuelled heating and hot water

If you have no heating or hot water, firstly check the gas pilot light. You'll find it in the access panel of your boiler. If the flame has gone out, press the reset button on the boiler.

If the radiators are not very hot, check the timer is set correctly.

If these do not work, phone us on 0300 300 0300.

Carbon monoxide detection and safety

If you suspect there is a carbon monoxide leak in your home

Carbon monoxide is a very poisonous gas which you cannot see or smell. Any gas, oil or coal heater or fire can produce carbon monoxide. Breathing in carbon monoxide can make you feel tired and dizzy and can give you headaches and chest pains.

Carbon monoxide can kill.

If you suspect there are high levels of carbon monoxide in your property, follow these steps:

open all doors and windows
move everyone outside into the fresh air
freephone the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.

Your carbon monoxide alarm

The carbon monoxide alarm in your home detects levels of carbon monoxide before they reach harmful levels.

If you think your carbon monoxide alarm is not working, or the alarm is ringing, phone us immediately on 0300 300 0300.

Do not remove the alarm, as it is checked as part of your annual gas safety check.

If we find these essential alarms have been removed, we'll replace them and charge you for the cost.

Your gas safety and carbon monoxide alarm check

We have a legal duty as your landlord to maintain and check all the gas appliances, systems and carbon monoxide alarms, in your home, including any we have installed, or any you have got permission from us to have installed.

See below what you can install in your home.

To do this, we must carry out a gas safety and carbon monoxide alarm check once a year to service and keep your alarms and gas appliances in good working order and safe for use. If you're a new tenant, we will do a gas safety check when you move in.

If you're a new council tenant, or you've moved to another council property, we'll also carry out a gas safety check to make sure the gas supply and appliances in your new home are working and are safe.

Before your gas safety check

We'll send you a letter around 8 weeks before your gas safety check is due.

It's important that you respond to this letter.

You must book your appointment either:

online through the Report a housing repair form
by phoning us on 0300 300 0300
by email at repairs@renfrewshire.gov.uk.

If you forget to contact us, we'll send you a reminder.

Unsafe gas systems or appliances are dangerous and can cause death, so it is very important that you allow us to carry out these checks.

Your appointment

As part of your tenancy agreement, you must allow us access to your home so that we can carry out these essential checks. If you do not, we may have to force entry to your property, and you'll have to pay any costs such as repairs to the door.

online through the Report a housing repair form
by phoning us on 0300 300 0300
by email at repairs@renfrewshire.gov.uk.

We'll give you a copy of your gas safety certificate, which includes confirmation that your carbon monoxide alarm is safe and working, when the check is complete.

What you can install in your home

Gas heaters and appliances for heating water

You need written permission from us if you want to install a gas powered heater, boiler or hot water tank for heating your radiators.

See the Permissions to make changes to your council house page for more information.

Once you have permission to install and use it, we'll maintain and service it. However, we'll shut down any unsafe gas appliances that have not been installed by us.

If you move out of your council house, any gas appliances installed there or left behind become the property of the council. You should not remove any appliances that were there when you moved in.

If you take any gas appliances with you, you must replace them with a suitable, fit-for-purpose heating appliance, and it must be properly installed by a Gas Safe registered engineer. You will have to pay for the replacement and the cost of the engineer to install it.

The Gas Safe Register is the official list of businesses that are legally permitted to carry out gas work. You can check if a gas engineer is registered on the Gas Safe Register website.

What you should not do in your home

You must make sure that gas fumes or carbon monoxide do not build up in rooms as this could lead to death or injury.

Ventilation

Do not block or cover any air vents within your property.

Open-flued (conventional) gas appliances

Open flued gas appliances have a single pipe that removes combustion by-products through an external wall.

Under current gas-safety regulations, you must not fit open flued gas appliances in rooms that are used for sleeping, even on a temporary basis.

You must also not start using a room as a bedroom if it has these appliances.

You should not use rotating ceiling fans in rooms which have an open flued (conventional) gas appliance, as they can lead to fumes including carbon monoxide being drawn back into the room rather than being removed through the flue or chimney.

If a gas engineer working in your home discovers this, we will make sure that you cannot use the appliance until the ceiling fan has been permanently disconnected.