A Tenant Smells Gas Near the Stove: What the Property Manager Does

When a tenant smells gas near the stove, the property manager's job is to get people out and the utility in, not to find the leak. Tell the tenant to leave the building now, without touching switches or the stove, and to call 911 from outside, then the gas utility. Then make the same call yourself. The repair comes later, once the utility has made it safe.

Everything else in this article is about doing those steps in the right order, and about what happens in the days after.

What to tell the tenant in the first minute

The first minute of the call matters more than anything that follows. Con Edison's guidance is to leave the area immediately and call 911 or Con Edison once you're safe, to avoid anything that can make a spark (light switches, appliances, phones, flashlights), and not to investigate a suspected leak yourself.

So the script is short:

1. Leave the building now. Take people and pets, and don't stop to look for the leak.
2. Don't turn the stove knobs, light switches or the range hood on or off on the way out.
3. Don't use your phone until you're outside and a safe distance from the building.
4. Once you're out, call 911 first, then the gas utility, and say you smell gas in the apartment.
5. Stay out until the utility says it's safe to go back in.

Tenants often want to turn the burner knob off first, because they think they left it on. Don't encourage that. If the smell is strong, the safest move is to walk out and let the responder deal with the knob.

A faint smell is still a gas call. National Grid's own safety material warns not to rely on smell alone, because the odorant can fade. You are not in a position to judge strength over the phone.

Your own calls once the tenant is out

Make the utility call yourself even if the tenant says they already did. Two reports don't slow anything down, and you'll know for certain it was made. Which utility that is depends on the building: Con Edison supplies gas in much of the city, National Grid in Brooklyn, Staten Island and most of Queens. If you're not sure, 911 covers both.

Then, in roughly this order:

• Tell the super not to go into the apartment to look. Supers want to help, and many of them know stoves. A gas smell is the one call where you want them standing on the sidewalk, ready to meet the responders and open doors.
• Ask whether neighbors on the same line smell it too. If the smell is in the hallway or more than one apartment, say so to the utility. That changes the response.
• Write down the time of the tenant's call and the time you reported it.

If the smell is in the hallway, the stairwell or the basement and not just one kitchen, this is no longer a single-unit problem. Leave it to the responders to decide how far the evacuation goes.

What happens when the utility arrives

The utility checks for gas, finds the source, and makes it safe, which usually means shutting something off. Con Edison says on the same FAQ page that its crews average about 22 minutes to respond, and that when the problem is in privately owned gas piping or equipment, it turns the gas off "until you can have a plumber or technician make the necessary repairs."

In practice that means one of three outcomes:

• Nothing found. The reading is clear, the cause was something else (a burner briefly left on, a pot that boiled over and put out a flame), and the tenant can go back in.
• The stove or its connector is the source. The responder shuts the gas to the appliance, often at the valve behind the range, and may tag or lock it. The rest of the apartment and the building usually keep gas.
• The building's piping is the source. The leak is in a riser, a meter or piping before the apartment valve, and the shut-off can be much wider. That is a different problem with a much longer road back, and it is handled by a licensed master plumber and the Department of Buildings, not by an appliance repair.

You'll want the responder's findings in writing, or at least written down by you while they're there: what they found, what they shut off, and whether anything was tagged.

Is it the stove or the building's gas line?

Where the gas was shut off tells you who fixes it. If the utility closed the valve to the range only, the problem is the appliance or its connection, and the apartment can usually keep everything else running. If it shut off the meter or a riser, the fix belongs to the building's plumbing, and no amount of stove repair brings gas back.

On the appliance side, the common causes we see in apartment kitchens are not exotic. A burner knob that was bumped partly on without lighting, a burner cap sitting crooked so the flame doesn't catch, a cracked or kinked flexible connector after the range was pulled out for cleaning, a worn valve that lets gas past when the knob is off, and older ranges with a standing pilot that went out. Some of these are a cleaning or adjustment. A leaking valve or connector is a parts job.

The connection itself is the part that changed recently. Under NYC Local Law 142 of 2025, replacing a household gas appliance or its gas connector falls under plumbing work that a licensed plumber performs. So if the connector failed, plan on a licensed plumber for that piece, even when an appliance technician handles the range itself. Our note on the true cost of replacing an appliance in an NYC apartment covers how that changes a replacement budget. This is general information, not legal advice; check the current DOB rules or ask your plumber before you schedule the work.

The repair path afterward

Once the gas is off and the cause is known, a gas smell becomes an ordinary repair with a clear sequence. It's no longer an emergency, but HPD expects cooking gas restored immediately, so book it promptly and keep the tenant cooking.

1. Get the cause in writing. From the utility responder if possible, or from whoever restores service.
2. Decide who goes first. If the connector or the gas valve to the range needs replacing, that's the licensed plumber. If the range has a bad burner valve, igniter or control, that's an appliance repair, and the two often need to be coordinated.
3. Book the appliance visit with the facts attached. Make, model, what the utility found, and that the gas to the range is currently off. A technician who knows that up front brings the right parts instead of discovering the shut-off at the door.
4. Give the tenant a way to cook. A hot plate or a countertop induction burner from storage covers a few days. Tell them roughly when the repair is booked.
5. Close the loop. When gas is back on and the range works, note the date, what was replaced and by whom.

Sometimes the right answer is replacing the range instead of repairing it, especially when a 20-year-old unit needs a valve and parts are scarce; a licensed plumber makes the new hookup. Our repair-or-replace guide walks through that decision.

Make sure tenants already know what to do

The best gas call is the one where the tenant leaves before calling you. NYC requires owners to post a notice telling tenants how to recognize a gas odor and what to do about a suspected leak, and HPD says tenants should get a Suspected Gas Leak Notice with their first lease or first renewal. Check that the posted notice is still up in the lobby and that your lease packet includes it.

A tenant who has read it once tends to do the right thing: out first, call second.

It's also worth telling supers the same rule in writing. Their instinct to fix things is exactly what you want on every other call.

When the stove needs a technician

After the utility has made the apartment safe and you know the problem is the range, open a work order with the building, the unit, the make and model, and a line about what the utility found. Requests through the booking page are scheduled within 24 hours, and the service call ($145 and up) covers the visit and on-site diagnosis, with the repair quoted for your approval before work starts. Our stove and range repair page lists the gas range faults we see most often. For how a gas smell ranks against other appliance calls, see which breakdowns are emergencies.