FORMER council house tenants are being warned they could face legal action if they obstruct inspectors in carrying out gas safety checks on their homes.

Housing Hartlepool, responsible for the town's 7,500 former council properties, said it had been forced to seek injunctions on six properties after tenants refused entry to inspectors.

The firm's building services manager, Brian Thompson, said: "We have a legal obligation as a landlord under the Gas Safety Regulations to check gas appliances, such as fires and boilers, every 12 months.

"We have an established process for arranging a convenient time to visit homes and, in the vast majority of cases, this works well with the full agreement of our tenants.

"However, some residents fail to co-operate and, as a result, we are unable to gain access to their homes. Legal action is very much a last resort, but we will go to the civil courts to ensure we gain entry to a property when we are left with no other option."

Residents who refuse to co-operate are being warned they could also be ordered to pay court costs.

Mr Thompson said: "This is a major health and safety issue - both for the tenant and neighbouring properties.

"A fire or boiler may, for example, be leaking carbon monoxide and, unless we carry out checks, we might not be aware that this lethal gas - known as the silent killer - is being produced, until a tragedy occurs.