Landlord Gas Safety Certificates in Great Torrington

I inspect every fixed gas appliance and the gas installation throughout the property.

Boiler: a full operational and safety check — ignition, combustion analysis, heat exchanger condition, flue integrity and spillage test, plus all the safety devices including the overheat thermostat and pressure relief valve.

Gas hob or cooker: every burner tested, and the flame failure device on each ring checked individually.

Gas fires and back boilers: Torrington's older housing — the Victorian and Edwardian terraces on Castle Hill, South Street and Well Street — still has gas fires and, in some houses, back boilers sitting behind them. They get inspected on the same visit. An old gas fire nobody's lit in years still needs checking if it's connected to the supply.

Gas pipework and tightness test: all the accessible pipework inspected and the whole installation tested for gas tightness. If I suspect a leak, it gets dealt with before I leave.

Ventilation: I check that the ventilation each appliance needs is there and not blocked up.

Safety devices: overheat thermostats, flame failure devices and pressure relief valves tested on every appliance.

Each appliance ends up recorded as safe, At Risk (AR) or Immediately Dangerous (ID), and I'll explain it in plain English. You shouldn't walk away from a report wondering what any of it means.

Torrington isn't a holiday let town the way Woolacombe or Ilfracombe are, but there's some short-term letting around the town and further down the Torridge valley — holiday cottages, rural boltholes, and places let for walking and cycling breaks near the Tarka Trail and Rosemoor.

The Regulations apply to holiday accommodation exactly as they do to a long-term tenancy. A cottage let a week at a time still needs an annual CP12, and how often you let it makes no difference to the frequency.

If you're running a rural EX38 property as a holiday let, the MEES (Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards) rules matter too. Commercially let properties have to meet minimum EPC ratings, and an old heating system — common enough in rural North Devon — can drag that rating down a long way. I'll give you an honest read on the boiler's condition while I'm doing the gas safety inspection, though a formal EPC assessment is a separate job.

One thing Torrington landlords need to be clear on: the CP12 covers gas appliances only. There are a lot of oil and LPG properties in the countryside here. Oil work needs an OFTEC-registered engineer, and LPG gas-safety work needs a Gas Safe engineer whose registration covers it. I do CP12 inspections for mains-gas properties only.

Torrington's rental stock falls into a few distinct types.

Town centre terraces: the Victorian and Edwardian terraces on and around Castle Hill, South Street and Well Street make up most of the rentals in the centre. A lot of them still have older heating — a back boiler behind a gas fire, or a conventional boiler and cylinder from before condensing boilers became a Building Regulations requirement in 2005. Gas safety checks on these sometimes throw up advisory notes about installations not quite meeting current standards. I'll explain what those mean, because an advisory isn't the same thing as a safety failure.

Modern residential development: anything built in the last 30 years around the edges of the town will normally have a single modern combi. Those checks are usually straightforward.

Surrounding villages: Sheepwash, Black Torrington, Merton, Dolton, Winkleigh and the rest of the EX38 catchment. Rural properties out there are more likely to be on oil or LPG than mains gas. I do CP12 inspections for mains-gas properties only; LPG inspections and oil boiler work are outside my scope.

Carbon monoxide comes from incomplete combustion in any gas appliance, and you can't see it or smell it. In older properties with back boilers or gas fires — and Torrington's Victorian rental stock has plenty of both — worn components or a blocked flue make incomplete combustion a real possibility, not a theoretical one.

Under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022, landlords in England have to fit a CO alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance. That means the room with the boiler in it, and any room with a gas fire. It has to be working at the start of each new tenancy.

I test for CO around every appliance during the inspection with a calibrated analyser. But that's one moment in the year. A working alarm looks after your tenants the other 364 days.

If the property's got an older gas fire or a back boiler, putting an alarm near it is simply sensible. And if there aren't compliant alarms fitted, I can supply and fit them while I'm there.

A CP12 for one appliance is £85 including VAT. Each additional appliance is £30, except gas fires, which are £80 each. Travel within 25 miles of South Molton is included; beyond that radius, a £30 including-VAT travel charge applies and is disclosed before booking.

I can line up several inspections on the same day where it works out. The standard published price applies to each property and its appliances.

You'll get an answer. Ring or message during the working day and you'll hear back the same day; evenings and weekends, it'll be the next working day. And if it isn't a job for me, I'll tell you that and point you at someone who can help, rather than going quiet on you.

When you book, I'll confirm it and give you a two-hour window rather than a whole day sat at home waiting. On the morning you get a text with a tracking link, so you can see where I've got to instead of wondering. Traffic and the job before yours are real, so it's a window rather than a promise to the minute, but if it slips you'll hear it from me first.

Call 01271 444410 or email info@tarkaboilersbarnstaple.co.uk.

I can line up several inspections on the same day where it works out. The standard published price applies to each property and its appliances.