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.

@Maverickess Interim results of the housing and work survey

https://shaction.org/shac-action-news-12-july-2025/

Housing Crisis in the Workplace Survey Interim Results

With huge thanks to all members who have completed and shared our survey – we have reached our first target of 300 responses.

The findings are already providing powerful evidence. Around 76% of participants said that housing problems had a negative impact on their attendance or performance at work. At least 50% of participants had been forced to take absence from work to deal with a housing problem. The disruption of bad housing and failed policy is clear.

For this to have an impact, we need many more responses. We are therefore urging everyone not just to complete the survey, but to share and encourage others to do so as well.

It shows that housing problems can affect the work of people living in all the housing sectors. Nothing unexpected there

My HA is generally pretty useless. I have to say though that the fire door thing really worked in my favour. They gave me a lovely new front door which is virtually intruder proof! The hinge runs the length of the door. They used expensive locks. My key can't be copied by just taking it to a shop, you have a card with a special number on it that you have to show to get a copy made. I got to choose the colour and style. I'm very pleased!

That said, I wfh so it's not a big problem for me. When I used to work out of home, then yes it was an issue.

Fire safety regs have turned flats into sweat boxes in some cases

Would you rather perish in a fire? You can open a window, you know?

They have restrictors as you well know. And the HA didnt care about fire when water was pissing through my neighbours electrics and refused to come out.

I wonder how these HAs would cope if they had to work around a tenant doing jury service!!

@Maverickess The contractors that didnt turn up to repair a leak at mine on 16th July im being forced to give a second chance to on Monday,something home owners arent forced to do
The best bit? In our case its THEM who are insisting on the work after a contractor spotted a wet patch on bathroom ceiling underneath ours. They couldnt even turn up to work THEY insisted on.

Friend of mine is waiting in for his toilet to be fixed. Receptionist asked him if he had two loos, Social housing policy wont even allocate tenants without kids two bedrooms, why would there be two loos! 🙄

Update

I have a single pensioner friend who lives in a social housing flat Had his toilet replaced on 11th August, it has been leaking, they come back , do a tweakment and it leaks again. Four times he has waited in ALL DAY because each time its an all day call to fix it, Now he is facing having to do that a FIFTH time ALL DAY, because its leaking AGAIN. If he was working his job would be in jeopardy by now. And he would likely have to cancel the kitchen refit they are doing next month, which THEY say will take ten days because if working he would have used up a weeks annual leave.

@Maverickess

https://hqnetwork.co.uk/news/book-review-middle-ground-a-frontline-journey-in-social-housing/

@Maverickess

https://hqnetwork.co.uk/news/book-review-middle-ground-a-frontline-journey-in-social-housing/