Health, Safety, Security and General Law in Residential Letting
This domain tests the statutory and common-law safety duties a letting agent must understand and help landlords discharge. Core concepts include the landlord's repairing obligations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (structure, exterior, installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, heating and ventilation); the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and the 29 hazard categories; gas safety duties under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (annual check by a Gas Safe engineer, record within 28 days, retained two years); electrical safety (five-yearly EICR for new tenancies since 2020, extended to existing tenancies in 2022, supplied to tenants and retained); smoke and carbon monoxide alarms under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations; fire safety in shared buildings including Furniture and Furnishings Regulations compliance; legionella risk assessment; right to rent checks under the Immigration Act 2014; and security of tenure concepts including the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and the distinction between a tenancy and a licence.
Traps in questions: confusing the landlord's duty with the agent's duty to advise; mixing up the gas record retention period (two years) with the 28-day supply requirement; assuming an EICR is valid for ten years (it is five); forgetting that carbon monoxide alarms are required in rooms with a fixed combustion appliance (solid fuel always; gas appliances from 2022); and treating a licence as giving the same security as an assured shorthold tenancy.
Rule of thumb: for any safety certificate, ask three questions - who must hold it, how often is it renewed, and how quickly must it reach the tenant? If you can answer all three, most exam distractors fall away.
Worked example: a landlord installs a new gas boiler. The engineer issues a CP12. The agent must give the record to the tenant within 28 days of the check and retain it for two years; a new tenant must receive it before occupation.