What you need to know about your smoke and CO alarms | Tenant news

Smoke alarms are fitted in all our homes for your safety.

If your home has a gas appliance, it will also be installed with a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm.

For safety reasons, please do not tamper with, cover or block the smoke or CO alarms in your home, as they will not work properly.

Please, regularly check if your smoke and CO alarms in your home are working.

Vacuuming your smoke alarm will remove dust and dirt that can stop it from working.

If you are concerned that your smoke or CO alarms may not be working, please contact our Customer Services Team as soon as possible on 0300 365 3100.

Safety checks

If you have a gas boiler in your home, Habinteg has a duty to ensure our contractors check it each year . Please make sure you allow our contractors to access your home so they can carry out all their tests. (If their proposed visit time is not convenient you can let them know a bitter time to attend.)

During the service visit, a gas engineer will also check your smoke and CO alarms and, if it’s not working properly they will either replace during the visit or advise us that it needs replacing.

The gas engineer will also carry out a visual inspection of any other gas appliance you may have in your home and test whether it’s working properly, even if it does not belong to us.

What is carbon monoxide?

Carbon monoxide is produced by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels such as gas, oil, coal, and wood.

CO is an invisible and very dangerous gas that can cause serious illness, brain damage and even death. CO poisoning symptoms are often described as ‘flu-like’.

You can’t see, smell or taste carbon monoxide, so it’s hard to detect without a CO alarm.

Common household appliances such as boilers, gas fires and cookers can all be sources of CO, if not properly maintained or ventilated.

Keeping safe from common sources of CO

The most common sources of carbon monoxide will come from your boiler, fireplace and cooker.

Barbecues and camping stoves can produce CO, however because they’re designed to be lit outside, they’re safe to use. Never use a barbecue, camping stove or metal container gas heaters, such as Calor Gas bottles, indoors.

Visit www.habinteg.org.uk/health-and-safety for more information on health and safety in your home.