For housing providers, the responsibility of managing compliance can be incredibly challenging because it can be difficult to demonstrate. Previously, documents and reports would have been physically stored and logged for the thousands of social properties across the UK, with their compliance status almost a guessing game once the reports were filed.
Following the introduction of the Social Housing Act 2023 and Awaab’s Law, and as we aim to improve the ‘healthiness’ of our social housing stock, it’s likely that further environmental factors, such as property temperature and humidity levels, may become a compliance consideration, only adding to the difficulties. However, the right technology can now share the burden of this important role in residents’ safety.
Digitising compliance
For many housing providers, compliance is a function of time. For example, in the case of fire and carbon-monoxide protection, straight after a contractor completes an alarm installation, they are confident that property is compliant.
But as time passes, and without the resources to test and assess regularly, confidence in the alarm’s status and its ability to protect the residents may decrease. Often, the next time a property’s alarm is checked after its original installation can be up to a year later during a gas engineer or maintenance team’s appointment.
By using the internet of things (IoT) and APIs to build smart homes, housing providers can feed real-time data into their asset management system. This means that they have a clearer idea of which properties are no longer compliant and require a prioritised visit from the relevant team.
It also means that already-stretched housing teams aren’t being overwhelmed with reports, but instead receive management data into one centralised system.
Smart solutions for safer homes
FireAngel Connected is a purpose-built solution for domestic safety, enabling housing providers to automatically log and access information from smart-home devices for all managed properties.
The solution includes installation training and compliance records, device installation images and location identifiers, all supporting the Hackitt report’s ‘golden thread’ and giving maintenance teams complete insights before any visit.
Once an installation is complete, each property will be signed off by a FireAngel trained installer, providing an instant digital certificate of compliance against BS 5839:6.
Widespread device removal
It is well known to housing providers and the UK fire and rescue services that residents may remove smoke and heat alarms within their properties. Whether this is due to false alarms because of incorrect installation, lifestyle choices or because the alarm needs attention from a maintenance team, with these alarms removed the residents are unprotected.
It might not be until a year later that an alarm’s removal is discovered, leaving not only that resident but all of their surrounding neighbours incredibly vulnerable to the risk of fire.
With FireAngel Connected, housing providers can remotely monitor interlinked alarms, access real-time status updates and view instant diagnostics reports for a more efficient and intelligent way to manage their properties.
Data is monitored in real-time to alert housing providers to the status of the devices in a property (for example if removed, triggered or in need of maintenance), thereby eliminating wasteful visits, staff time and administrative fees.
Having access to the device data from individual properties also allows housing providers to plan and cost for new alarms or sensors in the future. The solution can be deployed within the parameters of an existing budget and can be connected via cellular technology for better reliability than wi-fi so that tenants remain safe even if an internet connection is interrupted.
Adapting to a changing environment
When we work in such fluid environments, using the advantages of connected technology to future-proof properties ensures housing providers can remain compliant, even when safety standards are updated or introduced.
Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the sector is moving rapidly. Solutions need to be adaptable to accommodate changing regulations and have the flexibility to evolve with advancing technologies.
Combining FireAngel Connected with our Home Environment Gateway, the only gateway in the market with built-in temperature and humidity sensors and Zigbee connectivity, delivers a holistic resident safety solution.
The gateway can connect with up to 20 additional Zigbee sensors within a property (such as water-leak detectors or carbon-dioxide air-quality monitors) to elevate resident safety and wellbeing checks to previously unachievable levels, while simultaneously automating digital record collection and streamlining management activity.
Compliance confidence with IoT
Choosing an adaptable connected technology means housing providers can future-proof their residents’ protection, knowing that the monitoring of a property’s ecosystem will be scalable and expandable in the future to provide increased safety and reassurance should they need to comply with new standards.
And having the right technology empowers in-house teams with the insights to be confident all of the time, rather than just some of the time.
For more information on FireAngel’s Connected platform or our Home Environment Gateway, get in touch with our team of specialists by visiting fireangel.co.uk/connected.
Andrew Beechener is the business development manager at FireAngel.
