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A VICTORIA coroner has urged landlords to check gas appliances at their rental properties every two years, but stopped short of calling for wider changes after two boys died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Coroner Jacinta Heffey says landlords should be "encouraged" to sign tenancy agreements with mandatory service requirements in her inquest findings into the deaths of two brothers in 2010.
The findings disappointed Scott Robinson, who lost sons Chase, eight, and Tyler, six, when a faulty gas heater flooded their rented Shepparton house with the deadly gas.
"If the landlord had serviced the heaters, then it is more than likely that Chase and Tyler's lives would have been saved," said Mr Robinson's lawyer Ike Nwokolo.
Mr Robinson and his former wife Vanessa are separately suing the landlords for negligence.
The coroner found the Robinson boys died while sleeping in their mother's bed in Mooroopna, about 180km north of Melbourne, because the rental home had a dirty heater that pumped out carbon monoxide at extremely high levels.
The heater hadn't been serviced in at least five years and the landlords took no action after the real estate agent wrote three letters mentioning the need to have it serviced.
The coroner said this was "regrettable", but found the landlords were not to blame.
"Most people in the community prior to this tragic event would not have had any idea of the danger," she said.
She found the house also lacked adequate ventilation, while exhaust fans designed to vent the gas actually made things worse but there was no need to change current building codes.
The boys' mother spent weeks in hospital recovering from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning and has ongoing health problems.
Ms Robinson has since become the face of a statewide campaign to have gas heaters regularly checked.
The coroner praised her for these efforts and called for more public awareness campaigning to prevent similar incidents.
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) said it would be willing to look at tougher safety checks for gas heaters in rental property.
"We would be happy to work with government to make it mandatory," said REIV spokesman Robert Larocca.
AAP
