To ask for help. Pic included

[mrsshelby44]

My gas metre is in the bin shed in the flats where I live. My gas is on emergency and is due to run out. I can't get to my metre because of the state of the bins. I've called my housing yesterday and told someone would call me back but no one has. I have called back today and am still waiting for a call back to find out when someone can clear the rubbish so I can access my metre.

The bin collection was yesterday but they haven't collected the rubbish probably due the state of the shed.

This is an on going issue but no resolution has been offered. I asked to have my metre moved but told they don't do that.

My carbon monoxide alarm has gone off in the past the fire brigade and national grid needed access to turn my gas off. I worry if that happens again they won't be able to get to it easily.

What else can I do? Can someone please help me construct a letter/tweet to get things moving.

I also have a 4 year old child living here with me

I'm with British Gas. Will calm them to see what they can do. Called EH they are trying to get in touch with my HA and put pressure on them to sort it out but other than that not much they can do.

Call your local fire brigade / station, not the emergency number. NOW.

That's a massive fire risk, not just unsanitary.

What would I say to the fire brigade?

I thinks there's 8 metres in the only one on a pew pay metre.

You tell them that your gas meter is inaccessible behind a wall of rubbish that your HA is refusing to move.

Hi

Where are you?

Hubby works for a HA and I've let him read this convo.

Do NOT withhold rent unless you have a set up account which you can show the rent is being put into but be prepared for a long battle if you do this.

Contact the fire brigade with photos, contact the most nasty local paper you can and show them the photos etc.

Contact your local MP or councillor and say this is what your HA is letting their property turn into and exposing children to risks of bites, infection and monoxide poisoning.

Environment health is another one along with HSE- photo it all with dates and times etc.

DO NOT exaggerate the issues but take detailed notes and photos of all issues- email these to your gas board too as they can seriously pressure the HA to get their shit together.

Seek legal advice immediately with evidence - your monoxide alarm has already gone off- if it goes off again seem medical advice and make sure proof is shown to legal etc

19yrs experience for Housing and he's pretty disgusted the HA have not taken action especially children involved.

I'm in west London. That's great advice thank you. I won't withhold rent!

Not a short term solution but we have a smart meter, means you can top up using an app. British Gas are very keen to fit them, free.

You need to get an emergency call out from the housing to sort this out though. I'm lucky and on an end block so only three flats use our bin shed but some others on the estate are grim. But as we're slightly round a corner it sometimes gets missed. Maybe direct call the council / biffa?

Do you have a designated caretaker / cleaner / operations manger for the estate? Usually ime they are much better to deal with than housing officers and can actually do practical stuff.

You can also call pest control at the council direct and they will charge the HA for dealing with the rats. Again not much good right now with your gas about to run out but at least it's not too cold!

It's shitty though @mrsshelby44 I know. I'm HA too and there are some great things about it but sometimes the lack of respect they give you just compounds everything.

Hope you get your gas on.

Hi lass

We are Scotland so most advice would be same but legally we are different due to laws etc.

Defo get legal advice, take photos and cover you and your child's safety first. Any bites get seen and reported, any monoxide readings if alarm goes off get them recorded or photos etc.

Be safe and if in doubt hound the HA and get support.

Good luck!

Can you find the names of the trustees on the HA board? Tweet them as individuals and FB them too. Add to local FB groups where you can leverage 100's of people to share the post. HA will stand by and do nothing unless you shame them in to action.

That's a pretty useless response from the HA.

At my local council, there are at least 2 housing officers who would be on that quicker than a greyhound out of a trap. One of them once donned rubber gloves and went through rubbish that hadn't been properly disposed of, so she could identify whose it was. She proper read them the riot act and insisted they sign an acceptable behaviour contract.

Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense that rubbish shouldn't be stored where there's gas or electric meters. It's a bloody stupid idea.

Definitely contact your local councillor(s) as well - some of them are pretty good, some are less good but they should be able to help move the EH dept along as well.

HA should be all over that - especially with your CO monitor going off!! - FFS, they don't want a poisoning issue racked up to their account because of their fucking lassitude, surely?!

I also advise getting yourselves checked - tell the GP that you have a CO monitor that has gone off and they will know what to check for.

Really hope you get that sorted ASAP. Blood ridiculous that you're in this situation :(

Lady from my housing called and said really sorry it's not good news there's no one to come and clear the rubbish I'll call them again in the morning and get back to you.

(It was a longer conversation but that's the gist)

I tweeted and added the housing association, my local paper, daily mail, my MP and the fire brigade.

My housing have responded asking for my name and address so they can look into it!

Should also ass EH have been in contact with my housing but it doesn't seem to be making much difference.

Make these pics as public as possible to as many influential people as you can MP, local councillors, local paper etc. Also the, Chief Exec of your HA. They will sort it out in no time simply due to embarrassment.

poster mrsshelby44
I guess it's too late now to contact HA but it really is a huge fire risk. They're breaking the law with the bins being in there. Have you called the fire brigade -local not emergency

If you want to message me, I will tweet them my absolute disgust etc etc and help you get this fixed.

Lots of great advice here OP. Just to add, forget conversations with your useless housing officer. This needs to go in urgently as a formal complaint to the housing association - straight to the Head Office and ideally the Chair. Send an email tonight so they receive it in the morning highlighting that they are knowingly leaving you at significant risk, are failing in their obligations to you and that they need to take immediate action to prevent this happening again. I really do think you should email your local councillor too (sorry, can't remember from the thread whether or not you have) as they can be incredibly effective at getting things like this sorted.
Good luck

Just double checking that when you tweeted about this you included the pictures. How tech savvy are you - could you draw something on the picture to show where the gas meter / CO alarm is and put on it ‘can’t reach’ and another mark and/or words to show where the rats nest is plus something to say supposed to be clear for access, fire risk

Means that they have no excuse for not doing anything - it’s easier to overlook tweets without pictures but an annotated picture can speak volumes. Plus there is no way that they can then claim to have not realised what the issue was.

Ignore this if you have already sent the pictures!

Also try to record the noise of the rats at night / when noisiest and tweet that too - it will be something different to tweet to help keep the pressure on. And if you are able to get a short clip of video of the rubbish with the noise of the rats and you pointing it out and the lack of access to the gas meter, now you don’t have gas as you can’t access the meter to top it up, plus saying the stench is unbearable and the noise of the rats gives you and your dd nightmares - again it will be much more difficult for them to ignore.

And yes to adding it to local Facebook groups too.

I included pictures not annotated didn't think to do that 🙄

My housing replied to me on Twitter and said they will contact me in the morning. If I don't hear from them by 10am I will call back.