Case Study – Landlord’s Property 2016 
Background
Many landlords are not aware of their legal obligations to protect a tenant from legionella.
The Difficulty
Many Landlords do not see water systems as either dangerous or a risk to their tenants. The reality is different a dirty shower is just as dangerous to a vulnerable tenant in a let property as in a sports club.
What we found
We typically find faulty and dirty showers, hot water cylinders at low temperatures and storage tanks dirty, combination heating boilers out of order. Also poor plumbing and dead ends causing a build up of bacteria.
The example above shows, dead ends, an outside tap plumbed in with a hose pipe and old hot and cold water systems.
Solutions
The landlord was recommended to use a WRAS registered plumber to rectify the plumbing so it complies with the Water regulations, change the shower head where required and, repair the hot water system to store water at 60 deg C and give the tenants information on legionella prevention.
Summary
Many Landlords carry out the recommendations, however for those that do not if a tenant were to catch legionnaires disease in the property they would then be liable. Also a property in good order will be easier to let and look after.
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