We are committed to ensuring you are safe in your homes, please view our safety page below to find out more.
All registered housing providers are required to have policies in place to ensure that they minimise the risk of fire in their properties. Housing for Women is no different and this page provides a brief summary of our Fire Safety Policy and what it means for you.
Our Fire Safety Policy helps Housing for Women ensure that we have adequate and appropriate fire safety measures in place to minimise the risk of injury or loss of life in the event of a fire.
As a responsible employer and landlord, we have a duty of care to ensure that our buildings and facilities can be used safely and that we take all reasonable steps to mitigate any risks associated with fire in our properties.
Our Fire Safety Policy applies to our offices and all our properties including general needs blocks, refuges, supported housing and shared accommodation.
Housing for Women is responsible for ensuring that all staff, customers and contractors can work and live in a safe way in our offices and homes. We, therefore, place specific duties upon our staff and our customers, to ensure fire safety.
All Housing for Women employees have a duty of care to themselves, their colleagues, residents and members of the public. If Housing for Women staff notice any situation that represents a serious fire risk, they are required to report this to their manager as soon as possible.
Housing for Women staff must all familiarise themselves with our fire safety policy, attend training when required and use safe systems to prevent fire safety risks.
As a Housing for Women resident, there are also certain duties placed upon you to ensure your safety and so that we can carry-out our relevant procedures to ensure fire safety within our residential buildings.
Your responsibilities include:
If you live in a Housing for Women property where we are not the main landlord, and therefore do not have control of the communal parts of the building, we will refer any fire safety concerns you have to the relevant agent or organisation and take further action in the event these concerns are not addressed.
You can download Housing for Women’s full fire safety policy here.
Your local fire service provides free home safety checks and in many cases, this may include fitting a free smoke alarm. Fire Officers will also advise you about making your home safer.
To get a free safety visit from your local fire service, contact the London Fire Brigade on:
We are committed to visiting all properties every 12 months, irrespective of whether you have a gas supply or not.
Help us to help you stay safe – let us in when we need to check for gas safety.
If you smell gas or think you have a gas leak, contact Transco immediately on 0800 111 999 and turn off the gas supply at the meter.
Visit the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) website where you can view and download information on gas safety free of charge. This information is also available from the HSE in an audio version.
The HSE Gas Safety Advice Line is 0800 300 363.
View the Gas Safe Register website, where you are able to find details of Gas Safe Registered businesses and engineers in your area.
The Freephone telephone number for Gas Safe Register is 0800 408 5500.
A large number of domestic fires are caused by electrical faults. Read our guide to electrical safety below.
It's vital to look after electrical equipment – just because something works doesn't mean it's safe. To make sure your home is safe, you should inspect electrical fittings and equipment to make sure they're in good condition. Look out for the following:
We aim to carry out a full electrical installation safety inspection to your home every 5 years, but if you have any concerns, please contact us.
You must have our permission before any electrical work is carried out in your home – and we'll need confirmation that the work has been done by a qualified person.
Electrical work must always be carried out by an electrician registered with the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC).
The NICEIC website allows you to search for registered electricians in your area, as well as providing safety advice for householders.
Read the Electrical Safety Council's guide 'How Safe is Your Home'?
Condensation occurs mainly during cold weather. There’s always some moisture in the air, even if you cannot see it, and when moist air hits a cold surface tiny drops of water appear. You can see this when the mirror mists up when you have a bath.
It appears on cold surfaces and in places where there is little movement of air, such as in corners, on or near windows, in or behind wardrobes and cupboards and in rarely used rooms. It often forms on colder, north facing walls.
Condensation can lead to mould which can contribute to asthma and other respiratory problems.
1 Produce less moisture:
2 Ventilate
3 Insulate and protect from draughts
4 Heat more efficiently
If you deal with the basic problem of condensation, then mould should not appear. To kill and remove mould on washable surfaces, wipe down walls and window frames with a fungicidal wash readily available from shops. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions precisely. Disturbing mould by brushing or vacuum cleaning can increase the risk of respiratory problems. Other items such as fabric materials can often be washed, although this may not always remove the mould staining. After treatment, redecorate using a good quality fungicidal paint to help prevent mould recurring. The only lasting way of avoiding severe mould is to follow these steps to eliminate condensation.
Top Tips:
For further information you can download and read this Condensation and Mould leaflet here.
At Housing for Women, we aim to meet the highest standard of water hygiene in our properties. Although the risk is very low, there is a chance that legionella bacteria can develop in stagnant or stored water. Legionella causes the serious lunch infection Legionnaire’s disease. Symptoms of this are a high fever, muscle pain and chills, and possibly a persistent cough, chest pains and breathing difficulties.
Our responsibilities:
We are committed to looking after the health of our residents and will be visiting properties to complete a water hygiene risk assessment and any necessary works. We use qualified surveyors and consultants to assess the risks and identify any works required to reduce the likelihood of bacteria living in your water systems.
Your responsibilities:
Follow these simple steps to keep your home’s water supply clean and healthy. If you have been away from your property for a week or more:
Asbestos is a natural material that was commonly used in building materials between the 1950’s and 1980’s. Almost all buildings constructed or altered between these years are likely to contain asbestos. Buildings constructed after 2000 will not contain asbestos as its use was banned in 1999 in the UK.
You are not likely to be at risk if any material that contains asbestos remains unbroken and undisturbed. If asbestos is broken, drilled into or cut through then you may be at risk.
Current best practice tells us that if materials are in good condition and unlikely to be disturbed, then the risk presented is minimal.
There may be a very low level of asbestos fibres in the air as it is a natural product and because asbestos has been used so widely. Exposure to a low level of asbestos is unlikely to harm your health.
Levels of fibres may be higher in buildings containing asbestos materials, especially where the materials are damaged. It is very unlikely that the levels of asbestos fibres found in these buildings will be harmful, but if damaged you should contact us or seek advice.
We have a register of properties containing asbestos. We can advise you of the risk involved if you are planning DIY or home improvements. If you are concerned about asbestos please email repairs@h4w.co.uk
There are lots of products or places that asbestos has been used in over the years. Here is a list of the places it is more common to find asbestos in homes:
Exterior of building – roof sheets and tiles, fascia boards, exterior cladding, guttering and drain pipes.
Boilers – insulation to boilers, boiler flue pipes and storage radiators.
Interior surfaces – textured wall and ceiling coatings (e.g. artex), duct panels , infill panels (above, below or next to doorways/ windows), panels behind radiators/heaters, floor tiles, suspended ceiling panels and underside of stairs.
Other items –fireplace panels, panels to underside of sink, water tank, pipe lagging, bath panels, garage and shed roofs.
We have a legal duty to record and manage any asbestos known to be present within any of our properties. We are not required to remove all asbestos products because doing so may disturb the asbestos and release fibres.
We will identify and record the location of any asbestos, its type and the level of risk. We review and update records regularly and take action to manage or remove asbestos when necessary.
Always ask permission if you are planning home improvements or check with us and we can tell you if any asbestos is present. We will advise you of the risk, or refuse permission for the work where risk is high.
Changes to the structure of your home are not permitted without our approval in writing. If you personally carry out the work, or enable and permit others to carry out work without approval you will be responsible for all costs of dealing with any asbestos incidents, as well as the cost for re-instatement and disposal of asbestos.
If you are using a shared computer, or simply do not want other people to see that you have visited the Housing for Women website, you may want to hide your internet viewing history.
When InPrivate Browsing is turned on, you will see this indicator in the address bar
InPrivate Browsing helps prevent Internet Explorer from storing data about your browsing session. This includes cookies, temporary Internet files, history, and other data. Toolbars and extensions are disabled by default
Browsers store some info—like your search history—to help improve your experience on the web. When you use InPrivate Browsing, info like passwords, search history, and page history is deleted once you close the tab.
To open an InPrivate Browsing session, right–select the Internet Explorer icon on the taskbar, and select Start InPrivate Browsing. Or if you have already opened Internet Explorer select the Settings icon to the extreme right side of the address bar. Doing so will present a list of options, one of which reads Safety. Selecting this option presents another set of options, one of which is InPrivate Browsing. Clicking this option will open a new window allowing private browsing, and which can be closed with a single click.
As you browse the web, Firefox remembers lots of information for you - like the sites you've visited. There may be times, however, when you don't want people with access to your computer to see this information. Private Browsing allows you to browse the Internet without saving any information about which sites and pages you’ve visited.
There are two ways to open a new Private Window.
When you use Private Browsing windows, Safari doesn’t save your browsing history, and it asks websites you visit not to track you.
To use Private Browsing: Choose File > New Private Window, or switch to a Safari window that’s already using Private Browsing. A window that’s using Private Browsing has a dark Smart Search field with white text.
If you don’t want Google Chrome to save a record of what you visit and download, you can browse the web privately in Incognito mode.
The method for starting Incognito may very depening on the PC you are using. The default method in Chrome is to click on the 3 dots to the extreme right side of the address bar. Doing so will present a list of options, one of which is New Incognito Window. Clicking this option will open a new window allowing private browsing, and which can be closed with a single click.
How Incognito mode works
Incognito mode opens a new window where you can browse the Internet in private without Chrome saving the sites you visit. You can switch between an Incognito window and any regular Chrome browsing windows you have open. You'll only be in Incognito mode when you're using the Incognito window.
Others can see some information
Incognito mode only prevents Chrome from saving your site visit activity. It won't stop other sources from seeing what sites you’ve visited, including:
Downloads are saved to your computer
Chrome won’t save a record of the files you download in Incognito mode. However, the downloaded files will be saved to your computer’s Downloads folder, even after you close your Incognito tabs. You and anyone who uses your computer can see and open the files.