Access denied: The Council needs more of its tenants to allow its workers to carry out mandatory gas checks.
Despite the City of Lincoln Council managing to hold 7,500 annual gas service checks in city council homes, many tenants are refusing access.
As part of a legal obligation, the City Council has to carry out gas servicing every 12 months to make sure residents’ gas appliances are safe.
Still, some tenants refuse access on the first call, or even the follow-ups.
Last year, workers were unable to access 60 homes in the 12 month deadline, 322 received a final warning letter and 12 received legal notices for non access.
The Council has devised a scheme that rewards tenants for allowing workers into their properties on the first call with a quarterly prize draw.
Mr Waterfall of Rayment House won £200-worth of Love To Shop vouchers in the draw, which is provided by the council’s gas services partner Aaron Services Ltd.
Gas Contracts Surveyor Graham Twell said: “The majority of our tenants allow us access to carry out gas servicing, but the people who don’t leave us with a real problem.
“There is a high volume of repeat visits attempting to gain access, which is costly, inefficient and time consuming.
“In some cases, we even have to go through legal channels when tenants refuse access, which is a lengthy and expensive process.
“The prize draw is an incentive for tenants to allow access on an agreed date and to complete the Gas Servicing Customer Satisfaction Survey, which helps us to monitor and improve the service.”
Colin Boyd, Contracts Manager for Aaron Services Ltd, said: “We are committed to improving the service we give to the City of Lincoln Council and its tenants, so the survey returns are extremely important to help us identify any possible improvements to our service, direct from the people that matter most – the tenants.”
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