Legionella risk assessment for landlords: no certificate

Ask a self-managing landlord in England to list their compliance duties and you’ll get gas, electrical, energy, smoke alarms, in that order, usually from memory. Ask about legionella and most go quiet. Not because the duty doesn’t exist. Because nothing about it looks like the certificates already in the folder.

The other five entries on the landlord compliance checklist share a shape: an inspector visits, a document is issued, a date is set, a council can check it. A legionella risk assessment shares none of that shape, and the gap between what a duty looks like and what this duty is turns out to be exactly where it hides.

What the law actually asks for

The duty comes from the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, not from a landlord-specific regulation. Anyone who controls premises with a water system, which covers cold water tanks, hot water cylinders, taps, showers and any pipework in between, has to assess the risk of legionella bacteria growing in that system and take reasonable steps to control it. A rented home with a water supply meets that description by default.

There is no form to file and no certificate to receive. The assessment is a written record: what water systems the property has, where stagnant or lukewarm water could collect, and what’s been done about it. For most modern rented houses and flats with a combi boiler and no stored water tank, that record can be short. A property with a cold water cistern in the loft, communal pipework, or long spells of no one living there carries more risk and needs a closer look.

Why it doesn’t behave like the others

Every other row in that table is enforced by the local council and renews on a fixed clock, which is why a landlord who tracks dates carefully still catches every one of them. Legionella sits with the Health and Safety Executive instead, on a rolling review rather than a renewal date. It never appears in a council compliance check, so a landlord can be entirely on top of gas, electrical, energy and alarms, and still be holding no legionella assessment at all.

The cost of getting it wrong

A missed gas or electrical certificate carries a capped civil penalty the council issues directly. A legionella breach is different: it’s prosecuted under health and safety law, where a court sets the penalty rather than working from a fixed schedule. That uncertainty is worse for a landlord, not better, because there’s no number to weigh against the cost of doing the assessment.

In practice, enforcement usually follows an outbreak or a tenant complaint linked to a specific property, which means the risk sits quietly for years before anyone looks. That pattern will be familiar to anyone who’s read about how a gas safety lapse actually gets caught, except here there’s no annual visit to force the issue back onto the calendar.

What to do now

1. List every water system in the property: cold water tank or cistern, hot water cylinder, all taps and showers, and any pipework that isn’t in regular use.
2. Walk the property looking for stagnant water, dead legs of pipe that never get used, and any tank with a loose or missing lid.
3. Write down what you found and what you did about it. For a standard combi boiler property with no stored water tank, that record can be a page. For a cistern, communal system or a property left empty for long periods, get a professional assessment.
4. Set a review date roughly two years out, and sooner if a tenant changes or the water system is altered. CertSorted holds that review date alongside gas, electrical and energy certificates on one screen, so it’s a date you’re reminded about rather than one you have to remember.