Your landlord must ensure that your accommodation is suitable when you move in. Landlords must have a valid gas safety record from a registered gas engineer for each gas appliance in your accommodation. Furniture provided by your landlord should be fire resistant.

If you share your accommodation with people who aren't family members, you may live in a house in multiple occupation (HMO). Family members are immediate relations including mother, father or sibling and extended relations including a grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew.

In a HMO, your landlord has obligations to provide an adequate means of escape from fire, fire extinguishers and fire blankets.

Gas Safety inspections

Gas Safe Register replaced the CORGI gas register in Northern Ireland on 1 April 2010.

Gas Safe Register oversees the register of gas engineers who are qualified to work with gas in Northern Ireland. Only gas engineers on the Gas Safe register can service or work safely and legally on gas installations and appliances.

Every house, bedsit or flat that has gas must have a valid gas safety record. A gas safety record is valid for 12 months and issued by an engineer on the Gas Safe Register who has inspected and checked gas safety compliance. Before issuing a gas safety record, the engineer checks:

• the gas supply,
• gas appliances,
• gas flues,
• ventilation.

The gas safety record must show a gas safety check for each gas appliance in your accommodation. For each safety check, the gas engineer records if a gas appliance is safe or defective.

If the gas engineer notices any problems, the landlord must fix these by employing a gas engineer on the Gas Safe Register. Landlords must keep a gas safety record for two years and keep proof of all gas-related works carried out. Ask for a copy of the gas safety record when you move in. Make sure that the gas safety record is valid, with a gas safety check for each gas appliance in your accommodation.

It is a criminal offence if a landlord does not give you a copy of a valid gas safety record. The Health and Safety Executive can prosecute your landlord. Your landlord could be fined or even imprisoned.

• Right to peaceful occupation of the property
  

Right to peaceful occupation of the property

Tenants have the right to live peacefully in their accommodation and stop other people from entering without permission. This means that:

• landlords are not entitled to enter your home without giving you notice,
• they are entitled to have access to the property if they have good reason for this (i.e. if they need to carry out repairs or show new tenants around).

Your landlord must give you reasonable notice before entering your accommodation. Your tenancy agreement might state the amount of notice your landlord has to give - usually it's at least 24 hours. If your landlord doesn't give you reasonable notice, he/she may be harassing you.

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