We asked the HSE to clarify exactly what a Holiday Let

owners duties are with regards to Legionella,

we have done our best to summarise for you below!

•  You have a responsibility under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1989; Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to assess the risk of Legionella in your property.

•   In short, under the above acts, yes it is law and something you have a duty to carry out.

•   Here is what the HSE said – “Proactive inspection of privately rented properties for evidence of Legionella risk assessments and implementation of control measures is not something that the relevant enforcement authorities undertake. However, in the event of a tenant contracting Legionellosis from the hot and cold water system in their home, the enforcing authorities will ask for evidence that a risk assessment was undertaken and appropriate control measures were put into place; leaving the landlord liable to prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act if they had failed to do so.”

While no one is going to knock on your door and ask to see the copy of your risk assessment, if someone catches Legionella, you will be asked for evidence that the risk assessment was carried out. If you haven’t done it, or completed a risk assessment and didn’t address any of the issues it raised, you can be prosecuted.

•   This depends on the type of contract and arrangement you have with your letting agent. Here is what the HSE said – “Where a managing (or letting) agent is used, the management contract should clearly specify who has responsibility for maintenance and safety checks, including managing the risk from legionella. Where there is no contract or agreement in place or it does not specify who has responsibility, the duty is placed on whoever has control of the premises and the water system in it, and in most cases this will be the landlord themselves.”

If your management contract with your letting agent specifies that they are responsible for the safety checks in your property then it should be something that they should organise. In many cases the letting agent however will be acting as a ‘marketing’ facility for your property and therefore the responsibility lies with the owner / landlord.

It depends on the contract you have but ultimately if there is any doubt the responsibility will always lie with the owner.

•   The risks in domestic properties are relatively low so no you do not need an in depth test, sending samples off to the lab etc. In most cases a simple risk assessment to find any potential problem areas and allow you to address them will be enough.

•   In simple terms the answer is NO, you can do the risk assessment yourself at no cost at all.

•   Here is what the HSE had to say – “The responsible person does not need to be an engineer or microbiologist, they do however need to have sufficient competence and knowledge to ensure that all operational procedures are carried out effectively”

This means that the person doing the risk assessment has to be ‘competent’ i.e. do you have an understanding of the water systems in your house? Are you able to access and inspect tanks etc. in the loft? Are you able to check the temperatures of your hot and cold water systems etc.?

If the answers to the above are YES, then great, you can complete the Legionella risk assessment yourself.

If the answer is NO to any of them it may be worth asking someone to complete on your behalf such as SWLRA (or a plumber who is familiar with your water system and legionella risks etc.)

•   If you are the owner of a holiday let (house) you are not legally required to test for legionella

•   You are however legally required to carry out a risk assessment and act upon any of its findings.

•   No one will call to check if you have a Legionella Risk Assessment, however if someone contracts legionella at your property, and you do not have one or have not acted on any risks shown in it, you can be prosecuted.

•   You can complete a risk assessment yourself if you are competent. If not, ask or employ a competent person to do so on your behalf.

More information can be found on the links below which have been forwarded by the HSE –

•   http://www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/faqs.htm - Landlords duties

•   http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg274part2.pdf Paras 2.138 - 2.146

•   HSG274 Part 2 (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg274part2.pdf ) describes in detail a range of hot and cold water systems, how they should be operated and the control measures required. This document is free to download from our website.

 

HSE has also recently published a case to help ‘bust the myth‘ and clarify what is required by health and safety law which you may find helpful.

•   http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/myth-busting/2015/case357-consultants-letting-agents-exposure-to-legionella.htm

We hope that helps a bit in clarifying and summarising whats needed but if you have any questions at all or would like any further clarification please do not hesitate to contact us. Alternatively the HSE are super helpful and can provide any further guidance if needed.