What if your government threatens you with infecting you?

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Suspicious?! What, like, I want to not be at all at risk of infection? Wow! How suspicious! So, it's not enough for you to be a parasite on society, you need to destroy people's lives totally? (Oh, as long as they're not at risk you say? Aw, how 'kind', as if somehow the virus doesn't also react randomly and kills healthy people sometimes... but don't worry, money comes first! (Right?!))

And what bleach everything, I have so much random stuff I'd need to keep doing it for a century, besides the fact bleach can destroy things too. Bad signs? That's, like, as soon as I moved in, when the bathroom door got stuck and I couldn't use the toilet in my supposed home for nearly a day... but, hey, parasites be parasiting...

Chances are it's costing the landlord money. He's not thinking of money but rather the law or safety of the boiler going bananas.

It might be a bit suspicious too. A healthy person being very reluctant to let an engineering in even in the middle of a pandemic might be taken as a sign by a landlord that the tenant is up to something. If you were elderly or had health problems thay would be fine but assuming you are healthy, it might make the landlord worry.

The virus is also very mild. You need to keep everything in perspective.

I think the OP has just become scared s**t of all the COVID thing. My boyfriend is classed as vulnerable to COVID but a few weeks ago we've had plumbers coming in and out of our apartment because we had a leak in our kitchen and we had to turn the water off. It had to be done, otherwise our home would either get flooded or we'd have no water (as in none in the taps or in the toilet).

I see. You'd rather kill someone than risk a less than 1 in 1000 chance of getting a virus that kills 1 in 200 people who get it. What makes your life so much more valuable than their life that you'd kill them to prevent a 0.00002% chance of them killing you?

Make sure you never use public transportation or drive a car because the risk of you dying in an accident is much greater than your risk of dying of a virus from one person checking your boiler while wearing a mask and keeping a 2m/6ft distance. You should also probably avoid walking outside since you could be struck by a car or assaulted which can happen in the best of neighborhoods.

Don't worry about me. Life's short and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. Sure, I'm more likely to get the virus but we all die sometime. I'd rather have a great short life than a long and miserable life because I was too afraid to take a risk and do anything.

I think the OP needs to shut himself in a cupboard with a gas mask on for the rest of his life.

But I can't really blame him for being overparanoid. The media has got a lot of people s**t scared and have given people the "it doesn't matter if you die from anything else but for God's sake DO NOT DIE FROM COVID!" mindset, so people are freaking out and believing that you have a 100% chance of catching and dying from COVID just by looking at someone carrying it or letting a boiler man briefly enter your home to check your boiler. (Who knows, he might not be infected at all...)

Comparing with anything non-infectious is a fundamentally illogical argument, as always... and I've read research papers about it, not just tabloids if that's what you're thinking I did, and I can only have the opinion that it acts randomly, although age is a factor, but even then it's random.

And what's risk got to do with someone breaking and entering? How exactly are they comparable when they're breaking and entering? I'd attack them in such a case not because I'm seeking them out to do so, but because they are a stranger in my goddamn house!

I don't think the boiler man is going to break in. Knocking on the door and saying that he's going to check your boiler is not breaking in. It is an essential service. You can't beat them up and say, "get out of my house you trespasser!" to a genuine person. You might be mistaken for a threatening mad person and be arrested. Then you might catch COVID off the police and die.

A boiler test illustrating the reason for inspections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bU-I2ZiML0

I think attacking a boiler engineer is a guaranteed way to lose your home but also the mere threat to kill one is going to make your landlord very cautious of sending out contractors to maintain and repair your home after the virus is over. What if in the next two years your boiler actually stops working after the pandemic is over and you call the landlord to send the same engineer out you threatened to kill? Yeah......that's not going to go down well and you'll be in for a long wait or have 5 people enter your home to keep him safe. If one of my tenants done that I would be sending heavies in to keep him safe or alternatively they'll be cold in the winter.

The odds of you dying from it are VERY low. You're more likely to die from an accident during any week of your life than from this virus. Have you actually been staying inside the house for the entire time too? Overly worrying seems like an understatement.

But the OP doesn't care about dying from an explosion from a neglected boiler.

It's like walking on to a fast, busy road and saying, "I don't care if I get hit by a bus, but I'm s**t scared of getting hit by a truck."

It's probably true that the best way of staying safe from the virus is to keep people at a safe distance. If I was very worried about catching the virus from a boiler inspector, I'd arrange to be well away from him during the inspection. It might entail setting up a way for him to get in and out of the place without you having to be around. Presumably if the door was unlocked he'd be able to do that. Once he'd gone, I might away from anywhere he'd been for a few days, and then I might spray anything he may have touched with soapy water, maybe even spray the air as well. Soap kills the virus very effectively, there's really no need for those harsh chemical sanitizer products. I'd pit my wits against the problem until I'd figured out the most practical ways of neutralising the risks, then go ahead.

I'm fairly sure you're more worried than you logically need to be, but worry has to be taken on board if it can't be allayed. And certainly I'd not feel entirely safe letting a stranger into my home, from a contagion point of view. I'd do it though, under your circumstances, because it looks like they'll eventually get heavy with you if you don't. I'd also take a few precautions to reduce any risks to less scary levels.

I'd be wary of categorically and for all time refusing them entry - it'd be wiser to agree to the inspection but stall it for a while to give you time to prepare your safety precautions. Legally there's a difference between absolutely refusing entry and accepting it but being awkward about setting a date and time, agreeing to one and then cancelling it and rescheduling - I found that useful once when a landlord of mine who I didn't trust wanted to enter my home. Eventually they can get you for not letting them in but it'd take them a lot longer if you didn't appear completely non-compliant. Having said that, you'd be wise to crack on with your preparations because you won't make yourself popular with the landlord if you yank his chain too much. There's no perfect outcome, it's a question of balancing the risks and outcomes and picking what for you is the least horrible way through.

I'm sorry this matter has got you so anxious. I can relate to the way it's happened, I often feel that panicky sense of "no, I can't let this happen." It's very hard to know the best move when faced with a small risk of something really bad. I hope you manage to get calm enough to make a wise decision. Anxiety can play strange tricks on the mind. It would be good if you can find a sense of the perspective of the problem.

It is the landlord's job to keep the place maintained. Failing to do so can result in a lawsuit.

If you are so concerned about COVID, have them wear a mask when they enter your unit or take a step outside and wait for them to be done and then return home.

Also I don't know what country you are in but if you kill or attack the person for doing their job, that can result in you being hospitalized. Here in the US, you get jailed. They don't care about mental illness when you commit a violent crime. Prisons here have become mental hospitals.

80% of those who get Corona recover without needing any hospitalizations. I think the media has scared us too much but I have listened to actual doctors on this. We are only doing this social distancing and mask stuff is because we are not immune to this sickness and this is a new disease. Those who have weak immune systems are the ones who need to worry, same as for the elderly.

WHICH COUNTRY ARE YOU IN?

If you are in the UK landlords are legally obliged to have the gas tested every year (it was a nasty shock for me the first year this happened too). The government is not trying to infect you, the law has been around for much longer than covid.

If I were you I would contact the landlord and tell them you are isolating due to health conditions. He has no right to know what those conditions are. Because of covid guidelines for landlords have changed (temporarily) and instead of getting every property's gas tested they must show that they have tried to test. I really don't think that includes getting the police round (they wouldn't go anyway). You should be able to drag it out for at least six months, maybe a year. It may depend on how old the boiler is.

I was supposed to have a house inspection in March but it was not done and I don't think the one in September will happen either. My gas inspection is due October, I don't know yet whether they will want to go ahead with that .

There is very little danger about the gas, it was tested a year ago. Private houses don't get tested annually.

If you are a council tenant go onto the CAB website, you can post a question online. Ask if you can refuse to have a gas test because of health concerns over covid. You'll get a clear answer. What I put on my previous post was for private landlords and letting agencies.

Any tenant can refuse access to property in the UK even for council housing. Not even the head of the council can walk into a council owned house if it has a tenant that refuses access. They have the exclusive use of the property they rent however denying access for legally obliged checks or general inspection is possible grounds for eviction should the case be presented to a judge in a county court.

The OP needs to tread very carefully. Tenants always have the immediate say as to who enters their house but the landlord is likely to have the final say in a case he described. If the landlord doesn't evict the tenant after such a threat, he could well be justified in abandoning maintenance on the property indefiantly which will no doubt be bad for any tenant.

The pandemic has hit the world hard but it's important to be rational about the risks. It's a weak virus that almost exclusively kills those already on deaths door. If you were to die from the virus then the chances are you had little life left in you anyway. Just think a little more OP before getting this worked up. We know some people are worried over it but remember, we aspies get worked up very easily, it's the nature of our disorder. It amplifies stress and worry. Don't let it take control of you.

And yes. He can drag it out if he says he's isolating. He can drag it out for a long time actually within reason but the threat he made might have mudied the water. Its gone from a simple "I'm vulnerable and isolating" to "this tenant seems like he could be trouble". My personal opinion is that's best to call the landlord or agent, apologise for being overly angry and just say he's in an at risk group and is isolating, it doesn't matter if its a lie or not, the landlord doesn't need to know like you said and it might buy him some time. It's rare for a landlord to tell a tenant to lie to another landlord, but if you are this worried OP it might be best to just try what I said.