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If you have a gas supply at your home, do not ignore your safety test appointment.
Your tenancy agreement requires you to give us access to your home for gas maintenance or safety work and says that we should take all reasonable steps to make sure that this work is carried out. This may involve giving written notice to ask for access to your home.
If we can't get into your home after repeated contact, we'll take legal action. If we do have to take action, we'll recover all legal costs from you.
It is illegal for anyone not Gas Safe registered to work on a gas supply or any appliance.
Do not:
If you smell gas or suspect a gas leak:
As a landlord, we're legally responsible for our tenants' gas safety, and the landlord-owned appliances within your home, under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. This is a responsibility we take very seriously:
By law, anyone who works on your gas appliances, pipework and flues must be Gas Safe registered and must hold a Gas Safe ID Card. Remember to check this every time someone calls at your home, and to look out for the yellow triangle.
The card will tell you:
If you're worried at any time about an engineer attending your home, you can contact us to check, or call Gas Safe direct on 0800 408 5500.
Carbon monoxide is a very poisonous gas that has no colour, taste or smell. It can be released by any appliance that burns wood, gas, oil or coal, such as barbecues, camp stoves and gas appliances. Carbon monoxide emissions from poorly installed or badly maintained gas appliances and flues cause the deaths of 50 people and the hospitalisation of 200 people every year.
The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 specify that it is the duty of landlords to make sure that all gas appliances, fittings and flues provided for tenants in their homes are safe.
The best protection from fire is prevention. Smoke alarms are the most effective way of preventing fires. They also give vital early warning and extra time to escape in the event of a fire breaking out. You should check your smoke alarms weekly to make sure they're working.
To help reduce the risk of fires we are actively removing appliances that burn solid fuel from our homes during any vacant period, which is making our homes and neighbourhoods safer places. We will not give permission to reinstate any appliances or change these to alternative solid fuel burning appliances. Removing these appliances also reduces your risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Electric bikes and e-scooters are becoming increasingly popular, and along with mobile phones and DIY tools, are usually powered by lithium batteries (also called lithium ion or L-ion batteries). These batteries can store an enormous amount of energy in a really small space - which is very handy, but also means they can be at risk of catching fire if they're not stored or charged safely, or if the equipment becomes damaged.
If a lithium battery pack ignites and bursts into flames, it will burn aggressively and can cause widespread damage. Once alight it is very difficult to extinguish a lithium battery fire.
There have been a growing number of incidents of fires caused by lithium batteries, and an ITV News investigation found that in 2022 there were 203 fires caused by e-bike and e-scooter batteries - an increase of more than 400% in two years.
As our tenant, you're responsible for any damage caused to your home by any portable devices that you own.
It's your responsibility to arrange for home contents insurance to protect your belongings. If there is a fire and personal items are lost or damaged, Twenty11 is not responsible for replacing these, so please ensure you have suitable insurance cover for your belongings.
We're required to take action to prevent electrical incidents such as shocks and fires within our tenants' homes. To meet these requirements, we carry out a five-year Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) - like an MOT of your electrics - which will highlight any issues we need to rectify.
These appointments usually take two to three hours and we do require someone to be present throughout the appointment. We know this isn't always easy with work and life schedules and therefore recommend that a trusted friend or family member may be able to assist.
Allowing us to carry this out is a requirement of your tenancy agreement and we may be able to tie an appointment in with your five-yearly home check to make this easier for you. When you're due for an EICR, we'll send you a letter on what to do next. Please follow the advice on this, and if you have any questions, get in touch with us.