Council tenants - Resident safety

We use two companies to help us carry out our gas safety checks; K and T Heating provide domestic heating for the borough and Stonegrove Ltd provide communal heating.

They are Gas Safe registered and when a gas safety check is completed a certificate is issued.

This certificate tells us whether the equipment in your home is either safe or that work needs to be done to make the equipment safe.

The certificate (called Landlords Gas Safety Record (LGSR)) is only valid for one year, so we need to do this check yearly as part of your tenancy agreement.

What is a Gas safety check?

A gas safety check is a free yearly safety check to make sure any gas equipment Havering Council provides for your home is working properly.

Even if you do not think you have gas equipment in your home, there may be hidden pipes and other equipment that needs to be checked.

We take our role as a reasonable landlord very seriously so we could take legal action against you, which could include taking you to court, if you prevent us doing carrying out a gas safety check.

Living in a damp home affects your health and wellbeing.

We have developed a damp and mould service for our tenants you can access by contacting us.

What to expect with our damp and mould service

• We may come to your home 
• If the cause is due to a broken drain, leak etc. this work will be completed and appropriate mould washes and redecorating applied.
• If the cause is normal moisture through day to day activities, then we will make sure extract fans, heating controls etc. are in place and operational and we then undertake a series of mould washes to help residents get on top of the issue and manage it themselves s accordingly, we will leave cleaning materials as required.
• Where we struggle to understand the cause, we will undertake deep dives into your home to try to identify it. This may include full thermal imagery of properties, full air and temperature monitoring, full CCTV surveys and heat loss/design calculations.
• We have a network of other support services who can also help you.

Sometimes, the age and how your home is built and the materials it is built from will mean you are more likely to get damp and mould. This required a much bigger solution. 

We have long term plans to address this. 

We have an on-going project to reach net zero carbon for all our homes. This includes upgrades to external wall insulation, windows, doors, loft insulation all of which helps to improve the levels of damp and mould.

We are trying to work in a smarter way. We want to visit homes before the cold season to see if we can help residents before it becomes an issue and we are making sure we have ways to contact those most in need.

Fires in homes and communal areas can kill in minutes.

Fire safety in council homes - How we keep our tenants safe

• We have an ongoing programme to ensure all our homes received a regular full fire risk assessment.
• We have a plan of ongoing projects to invest in our fire prevention systems.
• We work closely with London Fire Brigade (LFB) and meets regularly with them, both on an operational and fire safety level, informing them of progress on the risk profile of the borough and other issues.
• LFB assists us in advising residents on fire safety and fitting smoke alarms inside their homes.
• We undertake fire risk assessments in all our blocks.

Fire risk assessment

A fire risk assessment is a review undertaken by a qualified consultant to assess the risk of a fire and offer recommendations to make the building safer if needed.

Local Authorities must do fire risk assessments as a requirement for all buildings that have shared communal areas such as blocks of flats including houses converted into two or more flats.

We undertake fire risk assessments based on a risk based approach, high risk buildings are assessed annually, medium risk every 2 years and low risk buildings every 3 years.

We also do quarterly inspections of all high risk buildings, including a check of all communal fire doors.

The risk of a building is made of:

• the building height
• high risk is above 7 stories
• medium 4 -6 stories
• low risk up to 3 stories
• who lives there, older people housing or supported accommodation we consider high risk

Anything else which effects the risk; flats above a fish and chip shop for example.

We work closely with the London Fire Brigade and other local partners to ensure the fire risk assessments are adhered to and issues addressed in a safe and practical way.

Request a copy of a fire risk assessment (FRA)

If you would like a copy of the FRA for your building, please email firesafetyproject@havering.gov.uk. 

Estate fire inspections

As a fire risk assessment is carried out annually, we carry out monthly estate inspections to pick up fire risks.

These are carried out jointly by our caretakers and Estate Managers. Inspections include checking communal grounds and garden areas, waste areas, fly tip removals, reporting on rough sleeping, reporting on ASB (Anti Social Behaviour), reporting of clutter within blocks and reporting of communal repairs.

Electrical testing

An Electrical Safety Check or an EICR (Electrical Installations Condition Report) is a legal requirement to have a valid landlord electrical safety certificate for each property we own.

This must be renewed every five years and it is our responsibility to organise this and ensure all work is carried out safely.

A landlord electrical safety check is when we test the electrical installation in your home to make sure it is working as it should.

The electrical installation includes things like light fittings, wiring, fuse boxes and plug sockets.

These can deteriorate and break over time, making them more susceptible to electric shocks and causing fires.