water & air quality
A way through the Legionella minefield
Water hygiene compliance is a headache for landlords, with many having only limited experience, but it’s crucial to get it right. James Homard provides a guide to the pitfalls and how to avoid them.
effect on the housing market. It has also meant that a sector which was previously dominated by ‘professional’ landlords is now largely made up of property owners with no previous experience of letting. This brings with it several challenges for both the authorities and for landlords. From a legislative perspective it’s important that rental housing meets
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safety standards so, with this in mind, in November 2013 the Health & Safety Executive issued a revised version of its Approved Code of Practice on the control of Legionella bacteria in water systems (L8), extending it to include all landlords and letting agents. In our experience however, a large proportion of private landlords have little or no understanding of their responsibilities when it comes to Legionella control.
Lack of information
There is something of an information vacuum when it comes to Legionella control but sadly ignorance of the law is no defence. All landlords should visit the Health & Safety Executive’s website (
www.hse.gov.uk) and download a free copy of the L8 Approved Code of Practice. The Legionella Control Association or LCA (
www.legionellacontrol.org.uk) has also published several guides and is an excellent source of information. Lastly, there are a number of industry blogs (including our own at
www.complianceforlandlords.com/advice) where you can find useful guidance and tips.
“The older the building or the more complicated the plumbing system, the higher the risk of Legionella”
Competency training
The law states that your Legionella risk assessment must be carried out by a ‘competent person’. This could be you, your letting agent or a water
hygiene professional, but whoever it is needs to understand how the water system in the property works and what the risk factors are for Legionella. Lack of proper training is so often cited in court cases where a safety breach has occurred but it’s an easy problem to fix. Every landlord should take a Legionella awareness course even if they are employing a third party to handle their risk assessments as, ultimately, the health and safety buck stops with them. If you are working with a letting agent, plumber or other trade professional, make sure you ask to see their qualifications.
Poor system design
As a general rule, the older the building or the more complicated the plumbing system, the higher the risk of Legionella. Where a house has been converted into flats or a property has been extended, often the plumbing system ends up as a bit of a patchwork of piping. Tanks may be tucked away in hard-to-reach places or there might be several dead legs or blind ends where pipes are redundant or water flow is irregular. These are exactly the places where Legionella bacteria likes to lurk, in
stagnant water or feeding on rust. To minimise the risk, inspect your pipework thoroughly, cap off or remove unused parts of the plumbing and make sure that your tank is in good condition with a tightly-fitting lid.
Inadequate record-keeping
Your Legionella risk assessment needs to be properly documented to prove its efficacy. All too often the paperwork is patchy, gets lost, or is just filed away in a drawer and forgotten about. Ideally you should repeat your risk assessment every two years, or whenever there are any changes to the plumbing system. Your report should include details of any necessary remedial work and a record of it being carried out, as well as a detailed
ith around five million private rental properties in the UK, owned by approximately two million landlords, it’s fair to say that the buy-to-let boom of recent years has had a dramatic
56 | HMM November 2016 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
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