Keeping communal areas clear

Why do communal areas need to be kept clear?

It’s important to keep communal areas clear for the safety of you, your family, and your neighbours.

Leaving items in communal areas increases the risk of fires that could be started accidentally or deliberately.

It also means that if there is a fire in the building it’s harder for you to get out, and for fire fighters to get in as the escape routes could be filled with smoke. It also makes it more likely that the fire will spread into nearby flats.

How are communal areas managed?

Our Estate Team and Fire Safety Team regularly visit all of our blocks and help manage communal areas to make sure they are clean, and that they are safe – this includes dealing with items left out.

If we find items in communal areas we’ll try to identify the owner and speak to them before taking any action. However, it’s not always possible to identify who items belong to.

What happens if items are left in communal areas?

Please Take Action cards

If we can’t speak to the owner of an item that’s been left in a communal area we’ll often leave a Please Take Action calling card. This is a polite notice to say that we’ve identified items in the communal area of your building that could stop you escaping safely if there’s a fire.

We’ll usually return the next day to see if the items have been removed. If they are still there, or we think that they pose a significant safety risk, then we’ll use a different process.

Fly-tipping

If we find waste materials such as rubbish bags, sofas, mattresses, wood, cardboard etc dumped either inside or outside the building then we’ll remove these as soon as possible, without any notice.

This is because this kind of fly-tipped waste can catch fire easily.

Tort notices

If we find items in communal areas that may be of some value and are not considered to pose a high risk, such as children’s toys, bikes or scooters, then we’ll issue something called a Tort notice, and post this through doors in the block. A Tort notice gives the owner 28 days to remove the item. We’ll leave the item where we’ve found it for those 28 days, but once the time is up our Fire Safety Officer will request that it’s removed and it will then be sold or disposed of. This can take up to 13 days.

If we have to remove the item, there will be a charge of £95.71 which will be added to the service charge for your block.

Retro Tort notices

If we find items in the communal area that may be of some value, and are considered to pose a high risk, such as e-scooters, e-bikes or white goods, we’ll issue a Retro Tort notice. This will be issued by the Fire Safety Officer, and will be posted through your door as soon as we find the item. If we’re not sure who the item belongs to, this will be posted through all doors in the block.

We aim to remove the item as soon as possible – usually within 48 hours. This will incur a charge of £95.71 which will be added to the service charge for the block.

We’ll store the item for 28 days from the date that the notice was issued. If the item belongs to you and you would like us to return it please get in touch and we can arrange to return it for a fee.

If we don’t hear from the owner within 28 days we’ll sell or dispose of the item.