Health & Safety
As your landlord, we take our tenant’s health and safety very seriously, and ensure that we follow all regulatory requirements in respect of fire and general health and safety.
Our Head of Property is responsible for making sure your homes are safe, with members of the Property Team and Housing Team supporting them to do this. We also use an external company to support us with things like annual Fire Risk Assessments and Health and Safety audits.
If a member of our team or a contractor gets in touch to arrange an appointment to complete a safety inspection on your home, your cooperation is very much appreciated to make sure that we can maintain safety for all.
Here’s some useful information about the safety checks that we do and how you can keep your home safe:
Fire safety is very important to Stoke on Trent Housing Society and we would like to reassure our residents that all of our properties meet strict fire safety regulations.
We have a fire safety policy to ensure compliance with legislation and we work with the Fire Service to ensure that our buildings are safe. Our high rise buildings are also registered with the Building Safety Regulator and we have a Building Safety Manager, Hadrian Noble who is responsible for managing the safety of your homes.
How we Manage Fire Safety
♦ We carry out annual Fire Risk Assessments (FRA’s), completing any necessary fire safety work as a priority.
♦ We regularly inspect our schemes, ensuring clear escape routes, that fire doors are working properly and that there are no fire hazards lying around.
♦ We provide smoke alarms in all of your homes.
♦ We work closely with the Fire Service and their Community Advice Team.
If you would like a copy of the current FRA for the building in which you live, let us know. If you live in one of our high rise buildings take a look at our section on Building Safety – High Rise Schemes.
If you are interested in fire safety and would like to be an involved customer working with the Society on fire safety matters let us know. For more information on fire safety take a look a the following information from the Housing Ombudsman
All of our Fire Doors, so those in communal areas and those to the entrance of apartments, are designed to resist fire for up to 60 minutes and are fitted with intumescent strips and ironmongery. When subjected to heat, the intumescent strips expand and seal the gap between the door edge and the frame. This stops any smoke entering your home. The door closers also ensure that your fire door closes behind you when you leave or enter your home.
As your landlord we are legally obliged to inspect your fire door every year, so when we call to do this, please let us in. At any time though, if you find any faults or problems with your fire door, or how it closes, you must let us know!
We want to make sure that the fire service can reach you easily if there’s a fire – and that you can get out quickly and easily in an emergency. That’s why it’s important that communal areas like corridors, walkways and fire doors are kept clear of obstructions like rubbish, prams, bikes, furniture or clothes. Even doormats must not be placed outside front doors as they are a trip hazard too.
If you find rubbish or anything blocking communal areas or fire escapes contact us on 01782 968566.
Make sure that you are familiar with the fire safety procedures for your home
◊ If you live in an apartment take a look at our Fire Action Notice example
◊ Test your smoke alarm to make sure it works – if it doesn’t contact us on 01782 968566
◊ Be careful with candles and keep them away from curtains, carpets, furniture etc.
◊ If you smoke, always stub cigarettes out properly and never smoke in bed or in our communal areas
◊ Make sure your electrical appliances, plugs and cables are used properly and safely
◊ Don’t overload plug sockets
◊ Don’t use or store devices that run on a gas cylinder
◊ Keep communal areas clear of obstructions, Get rid of your rubbish properly – and don’t block any exits
◊ Never prop open fire doors. They are there for a reason and need to be kept closed at all times.
◊ Allow us access to inspect your fire door each year – it could save your life!
We have a legal responsibility to carry out a gas safety check every 12 months on all of our homes that have a gas supply.
When your gas fire or boiler needs checking, our GAS SAFE registered contractor will contact you to arrange a visit to carry out a gas safety check. If they call and you are not in they will leave a card and you will need to make a further appointment. The appointment usually takes up to an hour.
As we have a legal obligation to complete this safety check , failure to give us access to your home would result in legal action being taken against you to gain entry.
We carry out a full electrical installation condition report on all our properties every 5 years.
When your home is due for the inspection our registered electrical contractor will contact you to arrange a visit to carry out the checks. You must make sure that
sockets are easily accessible and the inspection can take a few hours to complete.
Again failure to give us access to your home to complete this check could result in legal action in order to gain entry to your home.
Legionella bacteria can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a form of pneumonia, which is potentially fatal.
We carry our regular Legionella Risk Assessments (LRAs) on our buildings and complete legionella testing on those buildings which have a communal water supply.
We keep a record of any buildings and areas which contain asbestos and carry out regular asbestos surveys.
Where any of our buildings may contain asbestos, ahead of any qualifying work we will carry out an asbestos survey to check for the presence of asbestos so we can plan this work accordingly.
We are responsible for ensuring the safe working, operation and statutory compliance of lifts in our properties.
We ensure that all of our lifts have a thorough inspection every 6 months and are serviced regularly, and that any repairs are dealt with quickly.
If you have any queries about safety in your home please contact us.