iCOP12 Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 Did you know carbon monoxide claims the lives of 50 people a year? It's known as the silent killer. Like any home owner, people in rented properties can be at risk of the dangers of carbon monoxide too and as landlords you're responsible for the safety of your tenants. Your duties apply to appliances and flues in occupied residential properties and you must ensure that appliances are working correctly and guard against the dangers of carbon monoxide. Raising awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide to tenants can also help, and to help you do this, a new smart phone app and supporting marketing campaign known as iCOP has been launched this week (1 October 2012). The iCOP app is a film-noir inspired murder-mystery game where users are encouraged to collect the evidence and build a case file as they try to solve the mystery against the clock. It can be downloaded now from the iPhone App Store and Android Google Play Please support this campaign by raising awareness of the app, which is also available at www.ngngames.co.uk, or like the Facebook page www.facebook.com/iCOP12. It's also on Twitter @iCOP12 and anything you can do, as a landlord to raise awareness of this, could go a long way to ensuring the safety of your tenants. Anyone who likes the Facebook page can enter their details to get a FREE carbon monoxide alarm. Your support in raising awareness of this message is invaluable - thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 Did you know carbon monoxide claims the lives of 50 people a year? It's known as the silent killer. People in rented properties can be more at risk of the dangers of carbon monoxide Why are people in rented property more at risk ? Did you know that the 4 million rented properties in the UK are required to have an annual gas safety certificate and that leaves over 16 million owner occupied properties that don't need one.......see if you can work out where the problem is !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melboy Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 Oh! Dear! What a sweeping statement you have made here. "Did you know carbon monoxide claims the lives of 50 people a year? It's known as the silent killer. People in rented properties can be more at risk of the dangers of carbon monoxide and as landlords you're responsible for the safety of your tenants. Your duties apply to appliances and flues in occupied residential properties and you must ensure that appliances are working correctly and guard against the dangers of carbon monoxide". The question of course how many of the 50 actually lived in rented or private property? Private or rented occupied premises? it makes no difference to your risk factor. ALL persons are at risk. Having visited many many properties in the past it never ceases to amaze me just how many private homeowners have installed dangerous gas appliances themselves and some are very lucky not to have killed themselves from CO gas poisening. The problem of DIY installations is so bad that the monthly trade magazine "Gas Installer" devotes a whole page of photo's taken by registered gas installer's of dodgy installations that they have come across with a prize for the best one submitted. But I take your point you are trying to make but don't just single out the fact that Landlord's are the wicked people here......everyone with home gas appliances should perhaps have a CO moniter fitted and I think this is where you should raise your concerns in your campaign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iCOP12 Posted October 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 Did you know carbon monoxide claims the lives of 50 people a year? It's known as the silent killer. People in rented properties can be more at risk of the dangers of carbon monoxide Why are people in rented property more at risk ? Did you know that the 4 million rented properties in the UK are required to have an annual gas safety certificate and that leaves over 16 million owner occupied properties that don't need one.......see if you can work out where the problem is !!!!! I don't disagree with you at all Richlist, they are of course required to have an annual gas safety certificate, but not by law to have a CO alarm fitted. Many people, if not all, 'can' be at risk, not just those in rented accommodation (this was purely included for the purpose of the audience on this forum). The iCOP app is also aimed primarily at students, who, once moved in to student properties often have far more other things to be thinking about than carbon monoxide alarms as I'm sure you'll agree. Alas, anyone at all can of course download the app or find out more info etc through the channels mentioned previously, the main aim certainly is to raise awareness of the silent killer. As we all know, awareness can ultimately save lives. I'm also certainly not underestimating that the 16 million owner occupied properties you quote might not have one either, it's merely an extra safety precaution people can choose to have. That's why as part of the campaign we'll be highlighting the dangers over the coming weeks, encouraging people to find out more about it and giving people the chance to get a CO alarm through the dedicated Facebook page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iCOP12 Posted October 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 Oh! Dear! What a sweeping statement you have made here. "Did you know carbon monoxide claims the lives of 50 people a year? It's known as the silent killer. People in rented properties can be more at risk of the dangers of carbon monoxide and as landlords you're responsible for the safety of your tenants. Your duties apply to appliances and flues in occupied residential properties and you must ensure that appliances are working correctly and guard against the dangers of carbon monoxide". The question of course how many of the 50 actually lived in rented or private property? Private or rented occupied premises? it makes no difference to your risk factor. ALL persons are at risk. Having visited many many properties in the past it never ceases to amaze me just how many private homeowners have installed dangerous gas appliances themselves and some are very lucky not to have killed themselves from CO gas poisening. The problem of DIY installations is so bad that the monthly trade magazine "Gas Installer" devotes a whole page of photo's taken by registered gas installer's of dodgy installations that they have come across with a prize for the best one submitted. But I take your point you are trying to make but don't just single out the fact that Landlord's are the wicked people here......everyone with home gas appliances should perhaps have a CO moniter fitted and I think this is where you should raise your concerns in your campaign. Melboy - the initial entry has now been amended to reflect your concerns (although the formatting seems to have been lost - sorry!). Of course the initial post was not in any way aimed directly at singling out landlords, as explained to Richlist, tenants were simply included as an example due to nature of this forum's audience. In no way does the campaign, now or at any point, reflect badly on landlords, and if that is how it's been interpreted I wholly apologise. The campaign is simply there to help raise awareness to all so that tenants (in this case) could take the initiative and get a CO alarm themselves. The campaign is primarily aimed at students, who naturally may be in rented accommodation, but certainly the importance does apply to all as you correctly point out and no-one is excluded from the campaign - it's inclusive to get the message out far and wide (hopefully!) I do hope this clarifies any concerns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 So are you now going to withdraw your misleading statement ? :- People in rented properties can be more at risk of the dangers of carbon monoxide ......and don't forget that a very large proportion of the 20 million properties will not have any gas appliances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melboy Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 I have accepted a PM type apology and as far as I am concerned the matter is closed for me and I can understand what iCOP12 is trying to achieve with his campaign. I have pointed out to him that, in my view, before CO campaigns against landlord's I would like to tackle the problem at source and that is to root out the rogue landlord's who blatently refuse to have a gas certificate in the first place. Far more dangerous imo than not having a CO moniter fitted. Mel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iCOP12 Posted October 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 So are you now going to withdraw your misleading statement ? :- People in rented properties can be more at risk of the dangers of carbon monoxide ......and don't forget that a very large proportion of the 20 million properties will not have any gas appliances. Richlist, of course, this statement has been withdrawn, I hope that's showing on the initial post now too. This was never intended to come across in this manner, and certainly not directed at landlords in particular. I accept the way this was written was an oversight on my behalf and hope we can move on from this. The campaign I refer to is purely to encourage people to be aware of carbon monoxide, and the steps (such as fitting a CO alarm, getting a gas safety certificate, having regular appliance checks etc) that can be taken to reduce risks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 Lets have a reality check here.......CO alarms ? if they ain't a legal requirement then its unlikely to happen in any great numbers. You only have to look at the numbers of people without smoke alarms, fire blankets and fire extinguishers to see the size of your problem. Even when the item IS a legal requirement it don't mean its gonna happen. An EPC is legally required before marketing a rental property BUT hardly anybody bothers to get one.......cos it ain't being policed properly. Its clear to all that the Legislaters consider that an Energy Performance Certificate is a far more important requirement than a CO alarm. Why would Joe Public think any differently ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 This OP illustrates the point that 'Risk' is so often confused with 'Hazard'. In a Risk Assessment the Risk is the product of Hazard X Probability. Hazard types are variously weighted as to severity of injury through to certain death, but it doesn't change this principle. However serious the Hazard may be, if the Probability is very small, the Risk will be small too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.