amateur Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 We rent out my wife's old family house through an agent, and have today received a letter from them saying that:- "Due to changes to the Approved Code of Practice which provides guidance on how to comply with the recent changes by the HSE to the legislation relating to the control of legionella, it now means that residential lettings are covered by Approved Code of Practice L8 and HSE 274. The HSE ACOP L8form the basis around which the control of legionella related risks are managed. It is therefore mandatory that all rental properties must have a Legionella Risk Assessment, which must be performed by professionally trained and accredited risk assessors. The cost of this will be £85.00 + VAT. Your property will need to be assessed every 2 years" The house water is fed from the mains - no water-tank in the loft and a combi-boiler, so no possibility of stagnant water, and to my wife's knowledge, during her family's continuous occupation of the house since 1937, no hint of waterborne diseases. I believe that a number of PWers are landlords, so, have any of you come across this one before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lord_seagrave Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 It's more than your agency's jobsworth, but you can undertake the risk assessment yourself. http://rla.org.uk/landlord/guides/legionnaires_disease.shtml Have a chat with your agent. LS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elgreco Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 Risk assessments Landlords are under a duty to ensure that the risk of exposure to tenants, residents and visitors by Legionella is properly assessed and controlled. Normally there is no reason why the landlord should not carry out this risk assessment himself/herself so long as they are competent. Usually there will be no need to employ a consultant. The assessment should be a straight forward simple exercise in ordinary domestic premises. For most residential settings the risk assessment may well show the risks are low so long as simple control measures referred to in the next section are followed. This will apply to houses or flats with small domestic type water systems where the water turnover is high. Provided the risk assessment shows that the risks are insignificant and the control measures are being properly managed no further action would be necessary. It is important, however, to keep the assessment under review periodically in case anything changes to the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 Any body know when the last reported case of legionnaires was reported in this country that was contacted from a domestic water supply ? Harnser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amateur Posted May 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 It's more than your agency's jobsworth, but you can undertake the risk assessment yourself. http://rla.org.uk/landlord/guides/legionnaires_disease.shtml Have a chat with your agent. LS Thank's Duncan, The link was spot-on. My risk assessment is now complete! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 Of more relevance is the fact that from October this year it is essential that all rental properties have a working smoke detector on all floors and carbon monoxide detectors where there are solid fuel, gas or oil installations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony G Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 The biggest legionella risk in a domestic property is from a hot tub or jacuzzi that hasn't been chlorinated ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 The biggest legionella risk in a domestic property is from a hot tub or jacuzzi that hasn't been chlorinated ! Pah , what do you know about such things Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony G Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 Pah , what do you know about such things It's what pays the bills I'm afraid ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBeaky Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 Any body know when the last reported case of legionnaires was reported in this country that was contacted from a domestic water supply ? Harnser Have a look at the Health Protection Agency website - all the info is on there, and their weekly newsletter has an update on Legionella cases, broken down by area and type.The biggest legionella risk in a domestic property is from a hot tub or jacuzzi that hasn't been chlorinated ! And the biggest health hazard from either is probably *not* Legionella! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dougy Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 Its a load of codswallop. Tell them to swing, there maybe just cause if there's standing water but a large % of properties now have heating direct from the boiler to tap, no standing water there and over 70' , shower heads could possibly be the only cause. We told our agent no way after getting info from HSE from work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBeaky Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 Codswallop it may be, but is also the law. Any commercial property must have a Legionella risk assessment, the same as it must have a fire risk assessment. Your Legionella assessment may conclude that any hazard is low, and adequately controlled by routine maintenance, but you still need to have done the assessment. The ACOP only requires that the assessor is"competent", not that you have to pay an arm and a leg to a consultant - you can quite legitimately do it yourself, if you deem yourself to be competent (i.e. have the training, knowledge and/or experience to do the work). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby199 Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 I'll ask someone in the know about this and get back to you... (My father owns an estate agency and lettings company) so should know if they are just money grabbing or have come under some kind of pressure from above themselves?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winston72 Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l8.pdf here's what you need to know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winston72 Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 We rent out my wife's old family house through an agent, and have today received a letter from them saying that:- "Due to changes to the Approved Code of Practice which provides guidance on how to comply with the recent changes by the HSE to the legislation relating to the control of legionella, it now means that residential lettings are covered by Approved Code of Practice L8 and HSE 274. The HSE ACOP L8form the basis around which the control of legionella related risks are managed. It is therefore mandatory that all rental properties must have a Legionella Risk Assessment, which must be performed by professionally trained and accredited risk assessors. The cost of this will be £85.00 + VAT. Your property will need to be assessed every 2 years" The house water is fed from the mains - no water-tank in the loft and a combi-boiler, so no possibility of stagnant water, and to my wife's knowledge, during her family's continuous occupation of the house since 1937, no hint of waterborne diseases. I believe that a number of PWers are landlords, so, have any of you come across this one before? this will only cover the risk assessment NOT any remedial work it highlights as needing doing, that could run into a nice lump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodp Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 The biggest legionella risk in a domestic property is from a hot tub or jacuzzi that hasn't been chlorinated ! We get asked to make heavy duty PVC covers, for outside hot tubs, and It's crossed my mind before about leaving them covered for weeks on end. Any condensation will cling to the underside of the cover or between cover and side of tub, this will then surely "ferment" I still make them though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShootingEgg Posted May 24, 2015 Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 Our agent said its not compulsory.. So ive bot done it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amateur Posted May 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l8.pdf here's what you need to know Thank you for that Lord Seagrave's post above had already directed me to this and also to the Residential Landlord's Association site, where one can find a Risk Assessment form, which is well within my competency to complete and send off to my agent. There is also an advice leaflet to give to the tenant So job jobbed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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