Basement Restaurant Range, Gas Odour, and a Demanded Same-Day Sign-Off
A landlord has refurbished a basement restaurant kitchen and engaged you to connect a new 65 kW open-flame gas range. The existing installation includes a 35 mm steel riser, an emergency control valve at the meter, and a 150 mm mechanical extract hood. The electrical and fire-alarm certificates are current, but there is no gas safety record for the previous tenant's appliances. The extract hood is interlocked to the lighting circuit only, not to a gas solenoid. The range manufacturer's ventilation and flue data are not on site. The basement has no openable windows. The tenant moves in tomorrow, and the landlord asks you to commission the range and issue a 'pass certificate' the same day. You also notice a smell of gas at the meter governor, which the landlord dismisses as 'old pipe smell'.
1. What immediate action should you take, and what are your legal and professional obligations before connecting or commissioning the range?
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Immediate action: treat the governor smell as a possible gas escape. Stop work, avoid operating electrical switches, ventilate, isolate at the emergency control valve if it is safe to do so, and call the gas emergency service. Do not commission the range or issue any 'pass' document.
Duties: gas work must be carried out by a competent person under the gas safety regulations. The landlord has duties to maintain the installation and appliances in a safe condition and to keep records. A 'pass certificate' is not a substitute for a commissioning record. Before connection you need the manufacturer's ventilation and flue data, a risk assessment for the basement, and evidence that existing appliances are safe. If the gas escape is confirmed, the installation is immediately dangerous: the range must not be left connected, and the landlord must receive a written warning or defect notice.
2. What ventilation and interlock evidence would you require before the range could be commissioned?
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Check the extract rate and make-up air against the manufacturer's data and the applicable commercial catering ventilation standard. The hood interlock must prove extract airflow before gas can flow; interlocking to the lighting circuit is irrelevant. Confirm the gas solenoid or proving system, any required CO monitoring, and that basement ventilation is permanent and unobstructed. Measure the extract volume and room pressure: a basement with no openable windows depends on mechanical make-up air. If extract is inadequate or the interlock does not prove airflow, the range must not be commissioned. Record the measurements and the manufacturer's required figures on the commissioning sheet.
3. The landlord insists on immediate sign-off. How should you respond, and what should be recorded?
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Refuse. Put the refusal and reasons in writing and do not issue a certificate. Advise the landlord to have the gas escape repaired and the ventilation and interlock upgraded. Offer a re-attendance date after the documents are available. Explain that signing off would misrepresent the installation and could endanger the tenant. Record the conversation, photographs, measurements and the warning notice issued. If an unsafe situation is left, notify the relevant authority in line with your scheme's procedures.