Services

Drastic measures or common sense?

In 2002/2003 21 people in England died from carbon monoxide poisoning, 146 were overcome by carbon monoxide, 4 died from explosions.
Source www.hse.statistics/gas
These deaths were all related to gas safety.

Under the gas safety installation and use regulations 1998. Derby Homes has a legal responsibility as a landlord to provide the annual service and safety checks within a 12-month period to all properties that it manages.

This is to ensure that the gas service and the appliances are safe for the tenants and their neighbours.

The average cost of maintaining a central heating system in the private sector is around £190-00 per year.

This would give you a similar service to that offered to our tenants, which is provided at no extra cost, and includes:

• annual safety checks and appliance servicing
• comprehensive breakdown and repairs including all parts and replacements
• 24 hour emergency callout service.

It is surprising that some tenants treat this as an inconvenience and fail to keep their appointments. We make every effort to accommodate the tenant’s needs with the appointment scheme by:

• sending letters to advise tenants of the appointment
• providing a free phone number to allow tenants to rearrange an appointment
• running a prize draw for tenants that keep the first appointment
• leaving a calling card at every missed appointment
• sending a recorded letter to remind tenants of the urgency of the safety checks
• placing a notice on the door to set an appointment date
• attempting to contact tenants by phone
• continuing to cold call.

This year when our contractors had finished servicing in the first area containing 1464 homes, there were 89 tenants that did not allow access for this work, meaning that additional costs were incurred.

This year when all these efforts have been exhausted, we will apply to the courts for an injunction.

The annual servicing programme is as follows:

AREA

Stockbrook Street area
Mackworth area
Austin area
Brook Street area
Cowsley area
Sussex Circus area
Sinfin area (Littleover)
Chaddesden Park area
Alvaston area
Allenton area
Osmaston Area TIME SLOT

April-May
May-June
June-July
July-August
August-September
September-October
October-November
November-December
December-January
January -February
February-March

As an incentive to improve access rates to our properties we have introduced two £50 Vouchers for each management district. This costs over £1,000 per annum, but has improved first call access rates. This cost is offset against efficiency savings made by labour and resources.

Additional points in the interest of your safety

Some of you will have noticed that we have been carrying out additional quality control checks on the service we provide to our tenants in relation to gas safety - this is sometimes carried out by our own in house qualified surveyors, or by the supervisors from the main contractors.

We also employ external contractors to carry out audit checks every three months. This helps us to highlight any areas that we can improve the service or save resources.

We greatly appreciate the support and cooperation we have received from the tenants involved so far in allowing access to our contractors carrying out the audit inspections.

So that you know who is calling:

• our main contractor is Vinshire Plumbing and Heating
• our external audit contractor is Global Energy.

Derby Homes will be introducing changes to the permit procedure for gas appliances. This has been brought about following the need from 1 April 2005 to register all new gas appliances with Corgi. Should you wish to install a gas appliance in your home you will need to employ a corgi-registered installer who will be able to register the appliance. For more information apply for the permit through your Local Housing Office.

For more information on gas safety there are leaflets at your Local Housing Office or you can visit any of the following web sites: