• Replies 15 replies
  • Subscribers 28 subscribers
  • Views 2403 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Housing Association letters and literal mindedness - a nightmare

Hope

Last week I got a housing association letter about a routine boiler check. In bold it said that thousands of people die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning, and so it is important to have these checks. It said that a fully working boiler would deliver hot water and heating.

The bit about carbon monoxide poisoning scared me because it made me worry that I could die in my sleep from it, but my support worker reassured me. However, today, after a stressful trip to the shops, I found that my taps did not generate any hot water. I started to panic, despite reassurance from my support worker, and got my Dad to come round. Meanwhile my support worker phoned up the housing association to try get the gas people over straightaway, but this was not possible. She was told that we should not touch the boiler until the gas people arrive, which should be tomorrow, but my dad then arrived and, against my explicit command, started to meddle with the boiler box. I got extremely stressed, and ended up shouting at him.

I am still stressed, but am sleeping at my parent's tonight because I do not feel safe sleeping at my flat with no hot water, despite my support worker telling me it is highly unlikely that there is anything wrong with the boiler. I need official reassurance from one of the plumbers. This has happened before, but last time it happened, I was not so stressed because I had not read the letter about carbon monoxide and deaths. Also, my dad had fixed it by pressing some buttons on the boiler box, and it was confirmed as a water pressure issue.

That letter has now generated a new fear. Asperger literalness and misinterpretation is a real hindrance.

  • Hope said:

    Tenants who rent from 'slum landlords' in the private sector are most at risk, particularly if they don't get their equipment checked.

    Except, of course, the slum landlords like the one that I used to rent from who don't even provide a proper heating system.

  • Scorpion: I only had my detector installed last week. My housing association were installing them in order to protect their tenants, many of whom are elderly and disabled, and are therefore most at risk of Carbon Monoxide poisoning. You can purchase dectectors quite cheaply, or you could ask your HA for a detector - they should provide them free of charge.

    Carbon Monoxide poisoning is very rare in Housing Association properties because they are highly maintained and are checked annually. You are more at risk if you have very old, unmaintained equipment, or use those portable gas fires that the elderly often use in winter to keep warm.

    Tenants who rent from 'slum landlords' in the private sector are most at risk, particularly if they don't get their equipment checked.

    I have been researching it a bit, and these facts put my mind at rest before I got the detector.

  • MarcOnABike said:

    Im not sure to be honest I'd have to look into it. If its not law/guidelines then I would expect it as a corporate responsibility issue.

    Hmm, OK.

    I would be interested to know, as I too rent from a Housing Association, have a gas fired central heating and hot water boiler, and often worry about CO poisoning.

  • Im not sure to be honest I'd have to look into it. If its not law/guidelines then I would expect it as a corporate responsibility issue.

  • MarcOnABike,

    Do you know if that is something housing associations are meant to do, by either law or guideline, or is it something that the housing association you work for chooses to do off it's own back?

  • We fit and maintain carbon monoxide and smoke detectors as standard at work (housing association who specialise in housing for people with varying disabilities).

    Nonetheless good to hear you got it sorted

  • Had my carbon monoxide monitor installed today, free of charge, by housing association, and boiler was given the all clear. A lot more relaxed now.

  • You can not smell Carbon Monoxide - it's both odourless and colourless - this is what makes it so dangerous. I stand corrected. Smile You are right Scorpion, although I wonder however with my high sense of smell with autism. Laughing I could. Cough, cough

  • Just to correct one thing autismtwo wrote:

    You can not smell Carbon Monoxide - it's both odourless and colourless - this is what makes it so dangerous.

    Now, Hope, you shouldn't let that worry you more, as autismtwo correctly states Housing Associations are very good on this ground - they have to be - they would be in big (legal) trouble if even one of their tenants died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning.

    Also, as Crystal said, you can easily buy Carbon Monoxide alarms (from DIY shops such as Homebase, Wickes, or B&Q) - they're not too expensive if you go for the cheaper end of the price range (around £20 to £30), and will certainly provide reassurance.

    I've been thinking of getting one myself, as this is something I sometimes worry about too.

  • Longman,, it is the classic, autistic fixation and cognitive expansion,, I am the master of the worry wart too. High intelligence and low emotional coping has its price. Laughing I think if someone you trust, explains the situation or stops you worrying it helps reduce the fixation and expansive brain-storming negative bias thinking. I do what Hope does, leave the area and wake up with a fresh outlook. I also have what I call urgency people in my life depending on the subject emergency,, benefits, car, health,, so that I have the right people for the right emergency, knowing I have these reliable and capable people to call, it lowers my stress.

    I was laughing at HOPE talking about her dad, pressing all the buttons on the boiler. I would have flapped as well. But under my system,  if he was the emergency caller boiler fixer person on her list, so he even has to contact the Housing association ,, she would not have stressed so much. quote "against my explicit command, started to meddle".. that is classic,, love it. Laughing

    Crystal it is interesting you say that, because I have an carbon-monoxide alarm which was supplied by the local council. I wonder if the Housing association has to supply as part of the land lord agreement, because it is there boiler.

  • Hi Hope - I can understand your worry about carbon monoxide poisoning.  You can buy a carbon monoxide alarm (looks like a smoke alarm) + it will alert you if carbon monoxide is present, even a very small amount.  I'm not sure you can smell it, unlike gas, which you can smell.  An alarm would be a reassurance.

  • Notwithstanding it can probably all be sorted I can fully see Hope's point of view. I'm afraid my worry mechanisms are set to blow when anything like that happens.

    In my own situation it feels like I imagine claustrophobia might feel like, in that the situation grows in intensity to a point where it closes off every way out and takes over and my imagination runs riot.

    I had a problem three years ago because the gas board wanted to fit a remotely readable meter, and I'd heard all sorts of stories about the limited training they get. Apparently the task they have to do is relatively crude, and they are not qualified to actually do anything else swith the gas installation. But they have to turn the gas off and the customer has to restart.

    It caused me a great deal of anxiety because the central heating system I had gave me real headaches just getting it to adjust for me. I subsequently had it replaced and have since moved.

    But when the remote system installer came, he decided he didn't want to touch my boiler anyway, and was shouting at me because he felt inadequate! Not a good experience. I never heard any more about it, after all their fuss about wanting to do it.

    Yes its probably nothing, but not to me it aint!

    Unfortunately getting local authorities and utilities, and banks, and hospitals etc etc to be tactful is one of those unattainables.

  • Thanks for the reassurance. I think I am programmed to respond to any perceived risk, however irrational this may be. I feel better having read your post Smile

  • The water pressure falls below a millibar level, the hot water/boiler automatically will cut off.

    Carbon monoxide and poisoning is too do with the flue vents and gas exchange, this is normally to do with an old boiler issue or non-corgi fitted job. Housing associations are very good at checking this out.  

    The two issues are separate. They will just turn the water pressure tap, reboot the pilot light and it will be okay. Carbon monoxide test,, you would smell it. This is just an standard insurance check up for the housing association and for gas provider to see if it can sell more boilers.

    This time tomorrow, it will be all fine.