Funny how we can confuse the intent of the regulations.
34 (1) – (2)
(1) The responsible person for any premises shall not use a gas appliance or permit a gas appliance to be used if at any time he knows or has reason to suspect that it cannot be used without constituting a danger to any person.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1) above, the responsible person means the occupier of the premises, the owner of the premises and any person with authority for the time being to take appropriate action in relation to any gas fitting therein.
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Under the above regulation, I exercised my responsibility, and used common sense when I discovered to my horror that my WAU, which had always been serviced regularly, then suffered from serious malfunction and overheated, (not implying this happened because of regular servicing!) and therefore until it is repaired or serviced, and the cause of the overheat is investigated, the appliance cannot be brought into use any further, as it is deemed to be defective and dangerous, I therefore switched it off by tearing the mains plug off the wire, turned the gas off at the meter and as well as at the appliance local gas stop cock, so that the appliance could not be used by the tenant. I also called a RGI to cap off the Gas meter for a further legal obligation and issue a warning Notice for the purpose of satisfying the landlord's mandatory safety record.
Then all hell broke loose, I then received a warning letter from my lettings agent that by doing so I have committed a serious criminal offence! under the Housing Act 1985! By not being able to provide my dwelling with a space heating!
this is when I had to buy 3 fan heaters each 2Kw and gave it to my tenant and also agreed to subsidies charges for electricity!
I think people have lost common sense!