Safety in your home

All our properties are fitted with smoke detectors and fire alarms, and we install carbon monoxide detectors in homes with gas boilers.

We carry out annual gas and electric boiler services, regularly inspect renewable heating appliances, and will check your electrical wiring every five years.  

Your home will have a smoke detector or fire alarm. If you live in a shared building, we’ll do regular Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) to ensure that all our smoke detectors, fire alarms, fire doors and other fire safety measures are in good working order. 

We also regularly review any fire risks and our procedures for preventing and reporting fires. Find out more on our Fire safety page. 

Go to our Fire safety page

We regularly carry out safety checks on gas appliances in your home to keep you and your neighbours safe, and conduct these in line with guidance from The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002.  

Whenever we’re due a visit to your home, we’ll let you know in advance by writing to you. A gas safety check and boiler service should take an hour at most.

During the check, our qualified gas contractor will:

• test gas appliances to make sure they’re working properly
• check  flues are working properly and clear of obstruction
• inspect and test gas pipes to ensure they’re safe

It’s our legal responsibility to carry out gas safety checks, and it’s part of your tenancy agreement that you allow us to do them. If you’re not available on the date we want to come by, you’ll have to let us know another time that works better for you.

If you repeatedly fail to give us access to your home, we can go to court to gain entry. We’ll claim the cost of this back from you.

We’ll visit your home every five years to check your electrical supply is safe and working properly. We’ll tell you that we’re coming in advance. 

During the check our qualified electrical contractor will:

• inspect your electrical system and equipment like fuse boxes
• run tests on plug sockets
• arrange to replace any faulty equipment they find

We only check the electrical supply, and not your personal electrical appliances, which are your responsibility. 

It’s a legal requirement that you allow us to check your home’s electrical supply. If you repeatedly fail to give us access to your home, we’ll seek a court order to gain access and will claim back the cost of this from you.

Sitting or stagnant water can be a breeding ground for deadly bacteria such as Legionella, which can cause Legionnaires’ disease. This is an illness like pneumonia, which can be fatal.

Top tips for water safety in your home

There are a few easy steps you can take to make your home safer:

• run taps in your home at least once a week
• flush shower heads regularly
• if you leave your home for more than a week, flush and clean all taps and showers when you get back. Turn the water on slowly to avoid any splashing water and run it for a few minutes
• clean taps and shower heads regularly to prevent limescale, which can harbour bacteria

If asbestos is left alone and undisturbed, it poses no risk. There’s no need to worry if you think your building contains asbestos. Many buildings in the UK contain asbestos safely. 

Asbestos is only dangerous if it has been damaged or disturbed, which means fibres can get loose and potentially be inhaled into the lungs. This can cause serious diseases and lung cancer. 

If your building has a passenger lift, we’ll carry out regular checks to ensure its in good working order. 

We’ll write to you ahead of time and let you know we’re coming to carry out a check. If you can’t make the date we’ve suggested, let us know and we’ll reschedule it to another time. 

If you live in a building with a lift or lifting equipment and you notice it isn’t working, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can put this right.

Citizen is committed to ensuring the health and safety of its customers.  The Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 requires landlords to have a lead officer to ensure this.

The Health and Safety lead’s role is to monitor Citizen’s compliance with health and safety requirements, assess any risks of failure to comply with them and to notify the Regulator of Social Housing of any material compliance failures. Take a look at the safety and quality standard.