Gas safety checklist for a rented flat

Moving into a flat means inheriting someone else's gas setup. Most are fine. A few are not, and the difference is worth twenty minutes on the first day.

Check in the first week

• The flexible connector to the stove or hob: rubber or braided, and is there a date on it? Older than two years — replace it.
• The regulator on the cylinder, if LPG: ISI mark, date, no hiss when the stove is off
• Every joint: brush with soapy water with the gas on and the burners off. Bubbles are a leak.
• Each burner: lit, blue, even, not lifting or yellow
• The isolation valve, if PNG: can you find it, and does it turn?
• Ventilation: a window or exhaust in the kitchen that actually opens or runs
• The route of the pipe: clipped to the wall, not resting on the floor, not passing behind a heat source
• Any smell of gas at all when you first enter with the windows shut
• A gas geyser in a bathroom: is there a flue to outside and permanent ventilation?
• Who to call: the supplier's emergency number saved in your phone

Do not use the kitchen until fixed

A gas smell you cannot trace, or a gas geyser in a closed bathroom with no flue. Both are the kind of fault that does not give a second warning. Leave the supply off and get them looked at before cooking or bathing.

Ask the landlord

When was the line last tested, and is there a record? If PNG, is the connection in whose name, and is the internal line certified? A landlord who has these answers has a well-kept flat. One who does not is not necessarily hiding anything — but you should get the test done.

A safety check on move-in is a short visit and a small cost. Against what it can find, it is the best value spend of the whole move.