Water safety

Advice to keep your water safe in your home.

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Water Safety

As your landlord, your safety is our priority. We aim to protect occupiers of our homes, visitors and the wider public from the risks associated with legionnaires’ disease.

Legionnaires’ is a serious lung disease caused by inhaling small droplets of water containing Legionella bacteria. This disease is a potentially fatal form of pneumonia, and everyone is susceptible to infection. The risk increases with age, and people at higher risk include:

· People suffering from chronic respiratory or kidney disease

Top Tips and Frequently Asked Questions

Top tips for water safety in the home

Legionella thrives where water is not moving. There are quick and easy things you can do to prevent Legionella occurring in your home.

Make sure all taps, showers and water outlets are used at least weekly. This is called “flushing”. Day‑to‑day activities like washing up and making drinks usually do this automatically, but some taps may not be used every day.
If your home is empty for more than two weeks (e.g. after a holiday) flush the toilet and run both hot and cold water taps and the shower on its hottest setting for 5-10 minutes to remove any risk of bacteria build up.
Regularly clean and disinfect showerheads about four times a year using household descaler or white vinegar.
Keep taps and fittings free of limescale, slime, rust or debris.
Drain hosepipes after you use them and keep them out of direct sunlight
Make sure there’s no standing water in the hosepipes.
Throw away any standing water in your home – don’t let it grow mouldy or stagnant.

How is South Lakes Housing keeping me safe?

As your landlord, it is our legal duty to carry out a Legionella Risk Assessments (LRA’s) to all SLH properties with communal stored water systems and if circumstances change such as alterations to the water system.

We will complete any remedial actions identified from Legionella Risk Assessments and carry out a programme of routine maintenance visits to maintain hot and cold-water systems.

What should I do if I find something unusual with the water system in my home?

If the hot water in your home is not heating properly or there are any other problems with the system you maybe experiencing, call us on 0330 303 2222.