to think housing associations are going to have to start doing checks outside office hours.

[JenniferBooth]

The amount of checks HAs have to do is increasing
Gas safety checks are once a year and have been around for a while. Electric checks are every five years so not as often.

Last month a new rule came in for fire door checks. fireconsultancyspecialists.co.uk/fire-safety-regulations-2022-fire-door-requirements-from-23-jan-2023/

There seems to be some confusion whether its once a year or every three months but tenants will also need to be in for this if the door of their actual flat is a fire door so they can test it to see if it closes by itself.

There will highly likely be checks brought in for mould so that will be another inspection that tenants will have to be in for.

Tenants should not be expected to use up annual leave to facilitate all this so either employment legislation needs to change so tenants have a right to time off for all this in law or they need to start working round tenants schedules.

Nope. Not what I said at all.

The gas safety check / reminder process is a bit sledgehammer to crack a nut, and communication from the HA's can all to often be too blunt and far too threatening. However they are heavily regulated and the legal ramifications for not missing targets are significant. It is like Ofsted attendance policies on speed.

I used to own my own house and had repairs and maintenance done; the house I’m in now was owned by a different HA which used local tradesmen. I have used an electrician, plumber and joiner privately in this property and never had half as much trouble as dealing with the current centralised organisation of repairs and incompetent sub contractors employed by the HA. Absolute nightmare.

@JenniferBooth You don’t have to be in for these fire door checks! They are for communal doors.

There is no way i would want a contractor having a key to my flat as suggested upthread. These jobs are sub sub sub and sub contracted How many of these contractors would end up with a key to your home?

It'd make more sense to work with their tenants then instead of against them and making it harder than it needs to be to just get an appointment to have it done.

I had, by some miracle, last year, managed to have an appointment for a plumbing issue in the same "window" as the gas one - the gas one didn't turn up and then I got threatening letter about refusing entry - apparently having their own workmen there at the time was not proof enough that I was in and no one called but yup, I was on a warning for 'refusing access'. Again.

My ha is great about many things but this isn't one of them, but it's a rather important one, and I'm genuinely a bit concerned that one day all these warnings will result in me losing the tenancy all together, despite looking after the place and paying the rent on time.

The contractor wouldn't want your key. Your HA repair process sounds rubbish, some work, due to the nature of it, has to be sub-contracted, but most work should be carried out by the HA or the partner contractor.

It's for all fu al doors.

So my block of private flats we need to annual assess each door into communal areas. To do properly (and not face criminal charges as a director of our flat management company) this means inspecting them thoughly from both sides.

Why do I want to face jail if there is a fire as we couldn't check one flat? We need to ensure we cover everyone.

(Also we have to get car park lines repainted and yes everyone has to have notice to move their car on x day. We will do at a weekend but unfortunately cars must be moved to do it (I suppose if someone doesn't move it we ignore their space, have to go back with extra costs onto everyone's annual bills. Missing one off makes the whole block look bad)

apparently having their own workmen there at the time was not proof enough that I was in and no one called but yup, I was on a warning for 'refusing access'. Again

Absolutely ridiculous.

In my friends case they have never had car park lines until now. We dont have them at all.

My friend cant park his car too far away. He needs his car for an appointment that morning.

The Responsible Person must “undertake quarterly checks on all communal fire doors, and make annual checks on flat entrance doors”.

The check on the door to your flat will be once a year and you’d only need to be available for a morning or afternoon, if that. Why not get in touch with your HA and ask them how appointments are going to work? This has come about because the fire doors in Grenfell didn’t shut properly and the lobby’s and stairwells got full of smoke very quickly.

My gas safety check was booked for me by the HA by text message and I was told this would take place on the 31st January.

At 8.45am on the 31st January I received another text message saying my appointment was now booked for the 14th February. I rang them immediately because I was not happy the appointment had been cancelled on the day of the original appointment and to say the 14th February was not convenient because I work full time and couldn’t have that day off.

The HA changed the appointment to the 24th February.

At 5pm today I received a text reminding me of the appointment tomorrow.

So I rang them. And the explanation given beggars belief.

Although my appointment is on the 24th they are still sending someone out tomorrow (despite the fact they know I won’t be at home) and I will get a card saying I’ve had a missed appointment. Apparently they can’t cancel booked appointments even though these are just randomly booked by the HA with no consultation with the tenant.

I was however reassured to find out that there wouldn’t be any “comeback” for missing the appointment tomorrow which I didn’t actually book and agree to in the first place.

Madness.

Sounds about right for a HA!! Beggars belief!

@Maverickess I had one of those letters this week! Apparently because they’ve been trying to contact me and I haven’t responded! I received a phone call the other week about some proposed works, agreed that they could give my number to the chap who needed to come out to look at our house and advised that I was available every morning except one. The chap failed to call me and just turned up on the morning I couldn’t do so I had to turn him away! Gave him my number, didn’t hear a thing!

Well some ppl moved their cars Some didnt
Then the HA didnt show up

Letter from my HA about the electric check
"it is advisable to wear a face covering. Where residents are not willing to do this we reserve the right not to enter the property and this will be treated as failure to provide access"
Letter is dated February 2023

Threats of eviction from PHS Compliance for a check that is not mandatory in social housing

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/electrical-safety-in-social-housing-consultation-and-call-for-evidence/consultation-and-call-for-evidence-on-electrical-safety-in-the-social-rented-sector#:~:text=These%20regulations%20require%20private%20sector,not%20extend%20to%20social%20landlords.

Recent laws have come in which make fire door checks mandatory in all blocks of flats, not just HA ones, whether they're owned or rented. The aim is to make it a safer environment for everyone to live in, which can only be a good thing considering what happened at Grenfell.

Have you seen the impact of a well fitting and maintained fire door? They are genuinely astonishing in how effective they are.

All of the laws you're complaining about are there to protect vulnerable people from unscrupulous landlords. Mandatory EICR and gas certification is so that you're not in a property with unsafe wiring or gas appliances. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than the alternative.

Your HA sounds like a bit of a shit show in how it operates but nothing that they're trying to achieve with having the checks done is unreasonable. If you owned your property you'd have to manage renovation/remediation/general maintenance works yourself; it doesn't insulate you from that.

Have you seen the impact of a well fitting and maintained fire door? They are genuinely astonishing in how effective they are.

YES The door to our flat is a self closing fire door. It was fitted in March 2019 We were the ONLY ones that co operated. Other tenants refused. Our thanks for this? We were told we would have to share the key to the cupboard of our electric meter with the druggie who lived downstairs at the time. The doors on the cupboards which house the electric meters were changed as well.

Fast forward to 2022 and our HA sent letters out saying our front doors would need to be changed to fire doors. Ours had already been done but they wouldnt accept this. DH had a heated discussion with a housing assistant who insisted it had to be changed DH pointed out that if there was something wrong with it you get the same company back to fix the mistake A different contractor was used this time. I spotted one of them in the car park told him what the HA said and he came up and took a look. "there is nothing wrong with this we cant better it" he said.

So please stop assuming that social housing tenant = obstructive.

Im not complaining about the laws There are so many checks now though that HAs need to get out of the 1980s and into the 2020s There is a thread running at the moment that Sunday retail opening hours should be increased. Well you have said yourself that these checks are important so more important than shopping no? Why is working outside hours ok for some professions but not others.

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/electrical-safety-in-social-housing-consultation-and-call-for-evidence/consultation-and-call-for-evidence-on-electrical-safety-in-the-social-rented-sector#:~:text=These%20regulations%20require%20private%20sector,not%20extend%20to%20social%20landlords.

You cannot threaten someone with eviction for a check that is not ,mandatory in social housing. Another tenant has already challenged and won this. And mask requirements are not required in law anymore.

My Housing Association refuse to
accept that I’m not willing to miss work for appointments / maintenance unless it is an emergency that I have reported to have fixed. I’m self employed, no work, no pay but I still have business overheads to cover (commercial premises) so taking time off work can cost me quite a bit of money- I tend to reserve that for when I am
ill or dire emergencies. I am flexible with availability up to a point, as in I have to leave for work at 3pm and don’t work on fridays, but they often won’t let me choose the day, and their appointments system requires me to be available from 7.30am until 6pm on the day of the appointment, so I can’t ask for morning only.
Due to the nature of my work (teaching children’s dance classes) I can’t just cancel / not go in to work at the last minute either as many parents are at work during the day and my students have all sorts of childcare/lift arrangements, so I have no choice but to cancel classes until after 6.30pm just in case if I have a HA appointment. I do my best to be accommodating for gas safety checks, other routine appointments but they could help themselves by at least letting tenants have a smaller window for time slots or at least be able to choose the day to fit around work.

Buying a property is an option!

Dont you think if people could afford that they would do that @Throwncrumbs Where do you think the delivery drivers and low paid workers who made sure you got your deliveries and food during the lockdowns live.