A Wirral landlord has been fined £2,400 after admitting he failed to arrange annual gas safety checks at a rented home for eight years while a mother and her five children lived there.
The Health and Safety Executive said Adam Evans, of Brownlow Road, New Ferry, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 36(3) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 at Wirral Magistrates’ Court on 8 October. He was also ordered to pay £5,000 in prosecution costs, taking his total court bill to £7,400. The regulator published details of the case on 12 October.
The prosecution shows courts will punish long safety gaps even where no injury is reported. One missing certificate can be fixed fast, but eight missing years with no records left Evans with no defence once inspectors asked for paperwork.
Eight years without a gas safety record
HSE said the house on Salisbury Drive in New Ferry had been occupied by the same tenant since 2016. The tenant, a woman living with her five children, reported that no annual gas safety checks had been carried out during her tenancy.
When inspectors asked for records, Evans produced a certificate dated November 2024 that had been completed after the council raised the alarm. He could not supply any records covering the previous eight years.
Ian Betley, inspector at the Health and Safety Executive, said Evans had shown disregard for clear legal duties. “Adam Evans showed a complete disregard for the law and put the lives of a mother and her children at risk,” he said. “Annual gas safety checks are a legal duty and are in place to protect tenants from very real and potentially fatal risks,” he said.
Council referral triggered HSE enforcement action
HSE started its investigation in October 2024 after Wirral Borough Council passed on concerns about the property. Gas safety checks are a basic legal duty for landlords, and the regulator pointed to carbon monoxide poisoning as one of the serious harms annual inspections guard against.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s report on a Durham landlord fined £26,000 over repair failures, which showed councils and courts stacking penalties where hazards run on for months. The Wirral case extends that pattern to gas paperwork, with costs adding far more than the headline fine. Gas records also sit at the centre of the Supreme Court appeal over Section 21 and gas safety, so missing certificates can damage both compliance and possession options.
HSE reminded landlords that gas appliances and flues must be checked every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, with records kept. It also advised that carbon monoxide alarms should be fitted to give early warning of danger. Further HSE guidance on domestic gas safety sets out the checks landlords must arrange, and the full HSE account of the Wirral prosecution confirms the fine, costs and guilty plea.
HSE said the sentencing follows a recent warning about unregistered gas work amid a rise in prosecutions of illegal traders. The regulator stressed that checks must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, not a general handyman, and that landlords who cannot show valid records should expect enforcement action.
What this means for landlords
- If you let a home with gas: book the 12-month check with a Gas Safe registered engineer and keep every certificate where you can find it fast.
- Watch for council referrals: a single tenant report to the council can trigger a national regulator case that reaches back years.
- Count the full bill: here the £5,000 costs dwarfed the £2,400 fine, so late paperwork can cost more than the penalty itself.
- Bottom line: a fresh certificate after the event does not cover the gap years, so diary the renewal date and store the record.
Editor’s view
£300 per missed year looks light for eight years of risk to six people. The £5,000 costs order does the real work here. Landlords who treat the annual check as fixed overhead will never face this arithmetic.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 15 October 2026
Sources: Health and Safety Executive, Wirral Magistrates’ Court
Related reading: Durham fines landlord £26,000 over repair failures
