Wirral Methodist Housing Association (WMHA) was the first housing provider to adopt Gas Tag’s gas servicing software. John Harris, the housing provider’s cyclical and planned property surveyor, explains their use of Gas Tag.
What were the main reasons for choosing Gas Tag?
Accessing properties has always been a logistical problem for gas safety visits. This is compounded by the need to show evidence of attempts to gain access. Gas Tag provides our engineers with the ability to try to call tenants in order to assist with access. The system also accurately logs access attempts should we ever need to evidence this.
The gas servicing data is now available to all relevant staff rather than just one or two people, which means an improved service as a result of data sharing; if I’m away, someone else in the team can see what’s happening. The system also allows us to be completely compliant with up-to-date changes to gas legislation, and contractor performance can be audited via simple reports.
What are the benefits of Gas Tag?
There are a number of benefits including the more efficient processing of appointments and evidence of access attempts, real-time gas safety certificates, and flagging of what is ‘immediately dangerous’ and what is ‘at risk’. This reduces unnecessary letters and phone calls to tenants which were previously needed for ‘no access’ issues.
How have you managed your contractors when switching to Gas Tag?
Contractors were invited in to view the software where all of the benefits were fully explained. It was important for our contractors to understand the difficulties ‘no access’ posed for us and therefore the reason for introducing Gas Tag.
How does Gas Tag help with legislative compliance?
We have always taken our responsibilities for health and safety very seriously, seeking ways to improve where we can. We saw Gas Tag as a good solution to address our concerns about evidencing access attempts, and found the product offers this and so much more. As a result, we have improved services to tenants and made efficiency savings as a result of its implementation.
What are your tips for gas safety compliance and ‘no access’ difficulties?
To help address potential issues with gas safety compliance, housing providers should validate all engineers’ qualifications on an ongoing basis and ask for photographic proof of all work carried out within each home that is geo-tagged and time-stamped. Choose a centralised digital solution which gives you visible access in real time so that you can check gas certificates as they come in, as well as being able to produce automatic reports in real-time.
