Legionella and water safety: your landlord's duty

Legionella is a germ that can grow in water systems and cause Legionnaires' disease, a serious lung infection. Landlords carry a legal duty to manage the risk in rented homes. Here is what the duty involves, and what to do with concerns.

What is Legionella?

The germs thrive in water kept between 20 and 45 degrees. They grow in tanks, pipes, showerheads, and other parts rarely used, or where water sits still. The disease spreads by breathing in water droplets, from a shower say. It cannot pass person to person.

The disease can run very serious. Older people, people with weak immune systems, and people with lung conditions face the highest risk.

What is the landlord's duty?

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, make landlords control the Legionella risk in rented homes.

In practice, Health and Safety Executive guidance, HSG274, sets what landlords must do:

• A risk check: work out whether the water system poses a risk. Most homes with simple systems and no storage tanks run low risk, and a simple written check is enough.
• Controls: where a risk exists, cut it. Keep hot water above 60°C. Flush little-used outlets. Keep cold water below 20°C.
• Upkeep: keep the system in good order and deal with problems fast.
• Records: keep the risk check and any upkeep on file.

When is the risk higher?

A simple, well-kept water system generally runs low risk. The risk climbs where:

• The home holds a stored hot water cylinder, rather than a combi boiler
• Cold water tanks sit in the loft or elsewhere
• Showerheads, hoses, or spray fittings go rarely used
• The home stood empty a while with the pipes unflushed

Larger or more tangled buildings, HMOs and blocks with shared hot water, demand a more detailed check and tighter controls.

What should you do if you have concerns?

Worried about the water system? An old storage tank, weak flow at the showers or taps, water that smells odd? Report the concern to the landlord in writing.

Ask the landlord to confirm a Legionella risk check happened, and what it found.

No answer, or a refusal to deal with a real risk? Contact the council's environmental health team. They hold powers to make landlords follow health and safety law.

Can Legionella give rise to a disrepair claim?

Did a landlord fail to keep the water system up, leaving you ill as a result? A claim can follow under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, which requires rented homes free of health and safety hazards. Water safety sits expressly inside the Act.

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

Suffered illness tied to your rented home's water system, after the landlord failed to keep it safe? We may be able to advise whether a claim stands.

Call us on 0800 030 4669. No upfront cost. You only pay if you win, and the fee comes out of the compensation, not your pocket. If you don't win, you pay nothing.

Sources

• Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Section 11 (legislation.gov.uk)

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