Landlord Gas Safety Certificates in Ilfracombe

The inspection takes in every fixed gas appliance and the whole gas installation.

Boiler: a full operational check — ignition, combustion analysis, heat exchanger condition, flue gas spillage test and safety device operation. I check the external flue terminal too where I can reach it.

Gas fires: Ilfracombe's older properties, particularly the Victorian terraces on the hillsides above the harbour, often have gas fires — sometimes the originals, sometimes an early replacement. I test them for safe operation, correct ventilation and flue integrity. A gas fire nobody uses still needs inspecting if it's connected to the supply.

Gas hob or cooker: every burner tested for ignition and safe operation, with the flame failure device checked on each ring.

Gas pipework and tightness test: all 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 the ventilation each appliance needs is there and clear.

Safety devices: overheat thermostats, flame failure devices and pressure relief valves all tested.

Each appliance ends up recorded as safe, At Risk (AR) or Immediately Dangerous (ID), and I'll explain every finding in plain English.

The Regulations apply to holiday accommodation exactly as they do to a standard AST. The HSE has said so clearly and often. A cottage let to guests for a week still needs an annual CP12, and there's no exemption for low occupancy, a short season or short stays.

Ilfracombe's holiday let market is a big one. Places near the harbour, along Torrs Park and on the hillside streets with a sea view are the popular ones, and a lot of them are Victorian buildings with older gas installations — several appliances, awkward flue arrangements, systems with layer upon layer of past modifications. I work through them methodically.

If you run holiday lets rather than long-term tenancies, a few things work differently:

Timing. The 10–12 month check window lets you slot the inspection in where it suits your calendar, usually November to February when things are quiet. I'll work around changeovers wherever I can.

Guest documentation. AST tenants have to be given the certificate within 28 days. For a holiday let, it needs to be available to guests during their stay, and the simplest way is to keep a copy in the property — in the information folder or up near the boiler.

MEES (Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards). If your Ilfracombe let runs as a commercial letting business, the property needs to meet minimum EPC requirements, and an ageing boiler can pull a rating down a long way. I'll give you an honest view of the boiler's condition while I'm doing the gas safety inspection — better to know it's near the end before an EPC assessor turns up than after.

There's one more thing worth saying. A boiler that sits unused through autumn and winter and then gets fired up in March is far more likely to show a fault the moment it's asked to work. An inspection in the shoulder season finds it before your guests do, rather than when the place is full and you're fielding complaints from thirty miles away.

EX34 covers Ilfracombe and the area around it.

Town centre and harbour area: the properties closest to the harbour — Broad Street, the Quay and the streets climbing behind — are mostly Victorian and Edwardian, and a lot have been converted from family homes or guesthouses into individual holiday flats. The gas installations in those conversions can be involved: several appliances, shared flues in some cases, and pipework that's been extended and re-routed for decades.

Hillsborough and Chambercombe: residential streets on the hillsides above the town, a mix of older and newer housing. Long-term rentals are more common up here than down by the harbour.

Hele and Berrynarbor: villages east of Ilfracombe with a more rural feel. Properties tend to be older, with conventional heating systems or a combi fitted into an old house.

Carbon monoxide in a holiday let carries a particular risk, because your guests don't know the property and won't recognise the early symptoms for what they are. CO comes from incomplete combustion in any gas appliance, and without a working alarm there's simply no way to tell it's there.

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, including the room the boiler's in. It has to be working at the start of each tenancy or guest stay.

I test for CO around every appliance during the inspection with a calibrated analyser. But one test a year isn't year-round protection. An alarm fitted near the boiler watches it continuously, and for a holiday let you can't drop in on between bookings, that's basic due diligence.

If there's no alarm, or the one that's there is past its date, I can supply and fit one while I'm with you.

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.

If you've got several holiday lets, tell me how many and where they are when you ring, and I'll work something sensible out.