Commercial · Water Hygiene
Legionella risk assessments.
A standing duty on every employer, landlord and person in control of premises, under the Health and Safety at Work Act and ACOP L8. It takes a couple of hours and almost nobody in London markets it.
A duty most people do not know they have.
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations require you to assess and control the risk from legionella. ACOP L8 is the approved code of practice that sets out how.
Employers, the person in control of premises, and landlords. It applies to residential lettings as well as commercial buildings, which surprises most landlords.
We survey the water system, identify where water stagnates or sits in the risk temperature range, and produce a written assessment with a schedule of controls.
Monthly checks at sentinel outlets, recorded. This is the ongoing control and the part that gets forgotten between assessments.
Cold water storage tank inspected for debris, insects, temperature and lid condition. Tanks are where most problems actually start.
Tank clean and system chlorination where the inspection calls for it.
Dead legs removed, insulation corrected, TMVs serviced. We carry out the plumbing, so the assessment leads somewhere.
Reassessed when the system changes or the use of the building changes, and periodically otherwise.
From assessment to monitoring.
Tanks, calorifiers, pipework, outlets, and how the building actually uses water.
Risks identified with a schedule of controls and who is responsible for each.
Monitoring set up, records started, remedials quoted.
Monthly temperature checks and annual tank inspection, scheduled so they do not lapse.
Answered
plainly.
Yes. Landlords have a duty to assess and control the risk in rented property. For a straightforward domestic property with a combi boiler and no stored water the assessment is short and the risk is low, but the duty to have assessed it still exists and is regularly missed.
There is no such thing as a legionella certificate, whatever anyone selling one tells you. What you need is a written risk assessment and a record of the controls being carried out. Anyone offering a certificate is describing something the regulations do not recognise.
There is no fixed statutory interval. The assessment must be reviewed regularly and whenever there is reason to believe it is no longer valid, such as changes to the system, the building's use, or a case of legionellosis. Two years is a common review period for a stable system.
Water sitting between roughly 20 and 45 degrees, in places where it stagnates. Cold water tanks, unused outlets, dead legs of pipework left behind after alterations, and showers that are rarely run. Void and low-occupancy properties are higher risk, not lower, because the water sits.
A trained assessor. There is no legal monopoly on this work and no scheme you must belong to, which is why we can offer it directly rather than through a specialist. We will tell you the assessor's training before you instruct.
All 32 London boroughs, with a focus on west and south-west London.
Tell us the property
and we will survey it.
A site visit, an honest recommendation and a fixed written quote. London-wide.