Newark and Sherwood District Council goes to court to seek entry to properties that don’t have gas, oil and electricity safety certificates in place

A council has turned to the courts to gain entry to properties that aren’t currently covered by potentially life-saving utilities safety certificates.

Members of Newark and Sherwood District Council policy and performance improvement committee were informed the authority was making strides in terms of compliancy after it referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) for not keeping pace with home safety checks.

The regulator concluded that Newark and Sherwood District Council had breached the Home Standard and, as a result, there was potential for serious detriment to tenants.

It was issued with a regulatory notice following its failure to complete hundreds of gas safety checks, leaving tenants at risk of serious harm.

It heard there are 36 properties that do not have a gas safety certificate, which was said to be a significant improvement on the last quarter and the last six months.

Such certificates are vital as they are issued once appliances and utilities are known to be safe.

The council has gone to court with regard to these 36 properties as requests to gain entry have been ignored.

The courts have the power to grant legally-backed forced entry.

It is a similar story with eight oil-fired heated properties within the district.

There are also 43 properties not covered by safety certificates for their electricity supply, all of which the council has also been denied access to by the tenant.

39 of these are going through the legal process.

The committee heard that the threat of legal can sometimes literally be the key to unlocking the door to accessing a property.

The committee further heard that the legal process can take up to months with a warrant then having to be executed.

Committee member Roger Jackson asked what would happen if there was a devastating fire at a property that didn’t have a valid safety certificate and was told that liability was reduced further and further with each step that the council could demonstrate it had taken to gain entry to a property to make the necessary checks.

Gas servicing was 98.79% compliant at end March 2023 and improved to 99.31% compliant at end June.

It was reported that following the expiry of the previous contract, the new combined gas servicing contract has now been in place with Phoenix Gas Services Ltd for 11 months and has seen significant improvements.

As part of the annual service, the council now supplies carbon monoxide alarms to all heating appliances in every home (with the exception of cookers).

In addition, carbon monoxide alarms are also being fitted on all rewire projects.

Newark and Sherwood District Council has in the region of 5,500 council houses.