The Health and Safety Executive have published new updated guidance on preventing legionnaires’ disease
Legionnaires’ disease: Part 2 The Control of legionella bacteria in hot and cold water systems (HSE April 2014)
Full details may be found at www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires
This includes a chapter on ‘Residential accommodation: Landlords and shared premises’
These guidelines do not substantially change anything as far as the responsibility of managing agents and landlords. The main points that it addresses are
- Managing/letting agents should have a contract with the landlord that specifically lays down who has responsibility for maintenance and safety checks. If no mention is made it will be the landlord themselves
- All water systems require a risk assessment but not all systems require elaborate control measures. It may well be that for most residential properties the risk is low and no further measures are required but even so regular checks should be made in case of a change in circumstances
- Tenants should be advised of potential risks and advised to let the agent know if there are any problems such as the hot water not working properly
- When a property is unoccupied for a short period the risks may increase and extra safety measures may be required
- Agents are urged to use other periodic visits to a property (including gas safety checks) as an opportunity to make appropriate checks
- Agents should be aware that there may be several responsible people in a shared building (such as a block of flats) each with a responsibility for a certain part of the system and it may be possible for a contaminated system in one property to act as a reservoir and feed legionella bacteria into a system used by others in the building and any risk assessment should bear this in mind
