Keeping you safe

As your landlord, we are responsible for ensuring your home meets safety standards, ensuring you and other occupants are safe.

If you smell gas - please call 0800 111 999 at once.

To help us keep you and your home safe, we are legally required to ensure our homes always have a valid gas safety certificate.

This legal requirement is shared with our customers - it is a condition of tenancy that we are allowed access when required to inspect, service or repair gas pipework or boilers. This usually means an annual service, although sometimes more frequent visits may be needed. We are required to arrange a service even in homes where the gas supply has been capped and is not used.

We will let you know when the servicing is due and our contractor will contact you with a servicing date. We ask that you allow our contractor access to your property to complete this work - if the date given is unsuitable to you, please let them know and provide a date that will work for you.

As long as you have credit in both your gas and electricity meter, the contractor will be able to carry out the safety check.  If they call at your property and you have no credit in either of your meters and the required checks cannot be carried out, the contractor may have to close off (cap) your meter to ensure that your home and neighbouring households remain safe.

Most of our customers allow access for this work to take place. However, failure to provide access will mean we will take further action to ensure your safety and that of your neighbours is not compromised.

If you fail to keep your appointment without letting us or our contractor know, you may be charged the cost of the contractor's time.

If you think you might have problems providing access for the annual service, please contact us and we will do what we can to help.

• Download Gas Safety Policy PDF 625kb

As part of our legal duties to protect the safety of you, your family and neighbours, it is recommended that the electrical installation in your home is inspected and tested at least every five years.

During the inspection, the electrical contractor will:

• check for potential electrical shock risks
• check for electrical fire hazards
• make sure your electrical circuits and equipment are not overloaded
• make sure all the wiring is safe up to, and including, sockets, switches, and lights
• carry out any remedial works needed to bring your property up to the satisfactory standard

Remedial electrical works - why might I need remedial electrical work done?

Your home might require some remedial work to ensure that the electrical systems are safe to use and to obtain a satisfactory test certificate. It is of the utmost importance that these works are undertaken to ensure the safety and security of you, your family, and your neighbours. Most remedial work will involve changing a faulty socket or switch or an alteration at the consumer unit.

What you can do to assist and keep yourself safe:

• ensure you give access for all electrical safety checks.
• do not overload power circuits with multiple extension cables.
• do not attempt to carry out any electrical works yourself, except plug changes.
• switch off chargers etc. when not in use and check for overheating.

Carbon Monoxide (CO) is an extremely dangerous gas that has no colour, smell or taste and cannot be detected by the human senses. It is produced when fossil fuel (gas, oil, wood, etc) is not burnt properly. The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can be easily mistaken for flu, making it extremely dangerous and difficult to recognise. 

Carbon Monoxide Detectors installed in our properties are generally stand-alone and not linked to the smoke/heat detectors, therefore they will not trigger other devices in the property.

If your carbon monoxide detector is activated, please;

• Turn off and stop using all the appliances that you suspect could be causing the carbon monoxide leak 
• Open as many doors/windows as possible to allow fresh air to circulate and reduce the concentration of Carbon Monoxide 
• Evacuate the property as soon as possible 
• Contact the gas emergency services 0800 111 999
• Contact us to advise us of the situation 
• If anyone is suffering from the symptoms or effects of carbon monoxide poisoning seek medical advice immediately.

From February 2022 every home in Scotland needed to have interlinked smoke and heat detectors. This change was made to strengthen the current standards in place for smoke and heat detectors.

Being interlinked means that if one alarm goes off, they all go off. You may not always hear the alarm closest to the fire, especially if you’re somewhere else in your house. An interlinked system will alert you immediately.

All of our homes have at least:

• one smoke alarm in the room you spend most of the day, usually your living room
• one smoke alarm in every circulation space on each storey, such as hallways and landings
• one heat alarm in the kitchen

All smoke and heat alarms should be mounted on the ceiling and be interlinked.

Properties built before 2000 could contain asbestos in a number of different areas. Asbestos is safe as long as it is undisturbed, so you should not carry out any alterations to your property without first consulting your Maintenance Inspector so that necessary safety checks can be made. If required, any asbestos will be removed or encapsulated.

Legionella is a bacterium, which can grow in stored or stagnant water under certain conditions. The bacteria multiply where temperatures are between 20-45°C and nutrients are available. The bacteria are dormant below 20°C and do not survive above 60°C.

Inhalation of infected spray or droplets or water vapour can result in Legionnaire’s disease. This is a type of pneumonia which may be mild and flu-like, but can become more serious, and sometimes fatal. Early treatment with the correct antibiotics is effective in most cases.

It is unlikely that you will be at risk from legionella bacteria in your home water system. Mains supply water is treated by water companies, so contamination would have to occur between the water plant and your home. Although the risk of legionella within a home water system is low, we do still advise taking the following precautions:

• regularly descale taps, showerheads, and hoses.
• ensure all thermostats on stored hot water cylinders are set to 60⁰C or above
• if you leave your home for a long period of time, drain off and refill any stored water tanks when you return, before first use

All properties rented after 4th January 2009 must have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). The certificate is usually displayed beside the electric meter or next to the boiler and is valid for 10 years from when issued.

If you do not have an EPC, please contact your Customer Experience Partner.

What are EPCs?

EPCs tell you how energy efficient a building is and give it a rating from A (very efficient) to G (inefficient). EPCs lets us know how costly it will be to heat and light the property, and what its carbon dioxide emissions are likely to be.

The EPC will also state what the energy-efficiency rating could be if improvements are made and highlights cost-effective ways to achieve a better rating. Some improvements noted on the EPC may be worth implementing, such as switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs.