How to Write and Keep a Legionella Risk Assessment for a Small Rental

The agent emailed a glossy “certificate” and you have nothing that names the taps. A legionella risk assessment record for a small landlord in the UK is one written page: who assessed, mains or tank, combi or cylinder, outlets and dead legs, temperatures and findings, the simple controls, and a next-review date. Write that page, note a void flush, keep the old sheet in the same Water folder — then stop.

Friday before keys. Tessa’s one-bed in Coventry: combi boiler, shower over the bath, unused garden tap. The agent sent a PDF titled Legionella Certificate 2026. It is an invoice. Last year’s paper is hidden in a kitchen drawer. Nobody wrote that the spare-room basin is rarely used, or that the showerhead was descaled in March. In practice a one-page record — system, four outlets, two temperatures, flush after void, tenant cleans the shower, review at change of tenancy — would have been the file.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

What belongs on the page — not a “legionella certificate”?

Write one page per rental, not a lab flyer and not the agent invoice. Header: address, date, who assessed, and whether the system is in use or vacant. Health and safety law does not require a “legionella test certificate”. Sampling is not usually needed on domestic hot and cold water.

Landlords who rent a property, including a room in their own home, must assess and control the risk. The duty is proportionate. HSE’s landlord page (checked 11 September 2026) says most landlords can assess themselves if they understand the pipes. If you do not feel competent — stored tanks, a confusing conversion — pay someone. Typical mistake: treating a booking confirmation as the assessment. NRLA (updated 24 February 2026) is right that there is no formal certificate like an EICR or a CP12. A two-year “certificate expiry” is a product, not HSE’s wording.

INDG458 — HSE’s short leaflet on what the assessment should include — names the assessor, the system, risk sources, controls, monitoring habits, dated results, and a review date. Those fields fit one page. Write-down is not always statutory if you have fewer than five employees; HSE still calls it wise. Do write the page even on a simple occupied combi. Do not file an invoice as the record.

How do you describe a combi versus a tank or cylinder?

Say where cold water comes from — wholesome mains or a loft tank — and how hot water is made: a combi or other instantaneous heater (heats on demand, no store), or a stored cylinder, a calorifier. A short list is enough. Note if there is no stored hot water: that lowers risk, and you still assess.

HSE’s low-risk sketch is a small unit with daily turnover, mains cold, instantaneous or low-volume hot water, outlets mainly toilets and basins. A combi further lowers risk because there is no stored water. For example, Tessa’s one-bed matches that sketch except she also has a shower and a garden tap — those lines stay. L8, the Approved Code of Practice, uses the same shape: all systems need an assessment; not all need elaborate controls. Do write “mains cold / combi / no store”. Do not skip the file because “it’s only a combi”.

Which outlets, showerheads and dead legs do you walk?

Walk every tap, the shower, the bath, each WC, any outdoor tap, and any capped or unused feed. A dead leg is a pipe to a rarely used outlet. A dead end is a leftover capped pipe. Little-used rooms get a line. Do not start a microbiology essay.

Know those parts before you write findings. HSE’s hot-and-cold page names dead ends, dead legs and sentinel outlets — nearest and furthest taps. Showers can create inhalable droplets; regular use lowers risk. An instantaneous electric shower is lower risk — cold-fed, small volume — and still goes on the list. Write scale on the hose, a spare basin nobody uses, a garden tap left shut all winter. Do write those outlets by name. Do not write “bathrooms ok”.

What to write for temperatures and findings?

If you measure on assessment day, write the numbers you actually saw. Store hot water at least 60°C where there is a cylinder. Hot outlets should reach 50°C within about a minute. Cold should sit below 20°C after a short run, where possible. Healthcare 55°C is not this page.

Keep hot water hot, cold water cold, keep it moving. A water sample is not the assessment. Temperature monitoring is not a lab test. Typical mistake: a contractor report that demands monthly sentinel temperatures on a simple occupied combi. Those cadences on HSE’s things-to-consider checklist belong to more complex systems. For a one-bed, record assessment-day findings plus little-used outlets and any void flush. Do set a cylinder to 60°C if you have one. Do not treat a lab flyer as the page.

Who owns the flush, the showerhead and the file?

You — or the named person on the page — own the assessment. If an agent is used, the contract should say who holds the duty; if it does not, it usually stays with the landlord. Tenants clean showerheads, leave a calorifier alone, and report weak hot water.

Residential guidance in HSG274 Part 2 repeats that split. List HSE’s simple controls: flush before letting; a tight lid on any cold-water tank; store hot water at 60°C if there is a cylinder; remove redundant pipe. Vacant: use outlets weekly, or flush, or drain a long empty period. That flush is one dated line here — not the void-period utilities file. Tell tenants: do not turn the cylinder down; clean showerheads (quarterly or as the assessment says); report weak hot water. A gas visit can piggy-back a look at the taps; the CP12 stays in its Gas folder. Smoke and CO have a start-day alarm log. Do file this page in a Water / Legionella folder.

When to rewrite the page, and how long do you keep it?

The law does not prescribe an annual or biennial review. Review periodically, and when anything changes. Change of tenancy is the practical habit: a void, possible new occupants, walk the outlets again. A two-year diary reminder is optional practice — not an HSE statutory clock.

HSG274 rewrite triggers include a change to the water system or building use, failed controls, a new person responsible, or illness linked to the system. A new shower, tank, cylinder, or long empty period is a rewrite. If you keep a written file, HSE’s keeping-records page uses this model: current plus at least two years after; flush and temperature notes at least five years. Never bin the previous sheet. A later occupied walk is the periodic inspection checklist — not this page.

Workflow: Name the property → Describe the system → Walk outlets → Write findings → List who does which control → Date the next review → Keep the old sheet.

Success bar: one page you can open in a minute — system, outlets, dated findings, named controls, next review — filed by property with the previous sheets. Verify that pack, then stop. IziRento holds that record; it is not a water-hygiene firm.