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A landlord who failed to safety check and look after gas appliances in a buy to let house rented to a tenant has to pay £1,400 fines and costs.

Property investor Michael Smith was reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by his tenant for failing to provide a valid gas safety certificate.

This is a legal requirement for landlords to check the gas safety of appliances and supplies every 12 months and to give tenants a copy of the gas safety record.

Smith ignored a request from an HSE inspector to provide the certificate. The HSE sent a gas engineer to inspect the property and found five potentially dangerous defects.

Smith, of Grange Road Bessacarr, South Yorkshire, admitted breaching gas safety regulations and failing to comply with an improvement notice at Doncaster Magistrates Court.

He was fined £400 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.

After the case, HSE Inspector Mark Welsh said: “On average 20 people are killed every year because of faulty gas appliances.

Mr Smith blatantly disregarded a law designed to safeguard tenants from potentially fatal effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“He chose to put his tenant at risk and failed to take action even when given ample opportunity to do so when given an Improvement Notice saying exactly what needed to be done and when.

“Landlords must, by law, make sure gas appliances in their rental properties are maintained, have a gas safety check carried out every 12 months by a registered Gas Safe engineer and give tenants a copy of the current Landlord Gas Safety Record.”

The average cost of a gas safety check is around £75.