Electrics and gas
The gas pipe and the electricity meter share a small cupboard with no vent the surveyor could see. What separation and ventilation check belongs to a registered engineer?
The separation of the gas pipe from the meter, and the ventilation of that cupboard, belong to a registered engineer. The survey saw both services in a small cupboard and no vent it could point to. It has not measured a gap or tested airflow, and it has not passed the arrangement. Gas and electrical checks are different inspections. Sharing one small cupboard is a visual note only, not either of those checks and not a measurement.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Meters and gas pipes have rules about how close they sit and how the space is vented, applied by people registered to inspect those services. A home survey can say the cupboard is small, that both are in it, and that no vent was seen. It cannot invent a clearance it did not measure, and it cannot call a missing vent acceptable because no smell was noticed. No grille in view is not a ventilation test.
Ask a Gas Safe engineer about the pipe, the cupboard and the vent, and an electrician about the meter if the electrical side needs its own look. Tell the solicitor the survey has not signed the shared cupboard off. Do not describe the visit as the separation check. The home survey did not test either service and did not measure a gap.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What vent, if any, could you see in the cupboard that holds both services?
- Did you measure separation between the gas pipe and the electricity meter?
- Which of those checks did you leave to a registered engineer?
What are the typical next steps?
- Hand the separation and ventilation check to a registered engineer.
- Do not treat the shared cupboard as passed by the home survey.
- Keep gas and electrical inspections separate from this visual note.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If there is no smell of gas, is the cupboard acceptable?
No. The lack of a smell is not a separation measurement and not a ventilation test. The survey saw the gas pipe and the electricity meter in a small cupboard with no vent it could see. It did not measure a gap and it did not test airflow. A registered engineer still has those checks. The home survey has not done them.
Does a modern meter in that cupboard reset the gas pipe?
No. A newer meter does not measure how the pipe shares the space, and it does not create a vent. The survey recorded both services together and no vent in view. It did not inspect the pipework as gas work. Age of the meter is not the separation check a registered engineer would make.