ELECTRIC GATES Features FOLLOW THE HSE GUIDANCE
The HSE issued two safety notices in 2010 providing details of the risks of electric gates and the protection methods that must be adhered to. The detailed information contained within these notices is intended primarily for the gate industry, but can be used by managing agents and anyone else responsible for managing residential property to help them ensure that the firms they employ to maintain, install and/or repair electric gates are competent to do so.
The HSE also issued a general safety notice in January 2011 targeting facilities managers, and others who are responsible for developments with electric gates. This notice also contains very useful advice to Directors and Secretaries of RMCs/RTMcos and managing agents about electric gates on their developments. For example, when purchasing a new gate, they must ask the installer to show them how to release the gate in an emergency and confirm that the installer will ‘CE’ mark the gate and issue them a Declaration of Conformity.
The HSE recommends that people or organisations responsible for electric gates should periodically review their risk assessments to ensure that they identify any changes to the environment or operating conditions and that they have taken appropriate steps to address them. This is particularly important when the responsibility for management of the gate passes from one person or organisation to another. All safety devices and features should be checked on a regular basis and in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions to ensure they continue to function as designed to ensure that safety is maintained. This should be specified in a planned preventative maintenance schedule agreed by those responsible for the gate's management and their appointed maintenance company.
To read or download the HSE Notices on electric gates go to the HSE website at
www.hse.gov.uk RMCs - DON'T FORGET YOUR D&O LIABILITY
Electric gates are just one aspect of block management that can get RMC directors into hot water
Duncan Brown’s article emphasises the health & safety aspects of electric gates but it also throws into sharp focus the necessity for RMCs to take out effective Directors & Officers insurance – known as D&O cover. Flat Living recently came across a number of other cases that clearly illustrate the need to ensure you are insured.
Sometimes the risks – and costs to directors - come from unlikely sources, such as when a squirrel got into the roof space of a block of flats from nearby trees and decided to chew on the wiring it found there.
Residents blamed the RMC directors for not cutting back the trees and although they successfully defended the case, their legal costs came to £4000. Luckily their D&O insurance paid out.
In another case, members of a management committee were held individually liable for failing to appoint a competent builder to re- roof their block. The work was not up to a reasonable standard and the company later went into administration. The management committee was held accountable for the costs associated with re-roofing for the second time - luckily they were covered via their D&O policy.
It’s not just directors who can find themselves in the firing line. The secretary
Issue 21
of a small block of flats was recently asked to get a range of building insurance quotes. The contract selected – in common with the majority of policies) contained a small print restriction relating to unoccupied or unfurnished flats. When a pipe burst in an unoccupied flat in the block and caused substantial damage to a neighbouring property, the secretary was held responsible for failing to obtain suitable cover for the block in question.
Finally, one resident in a block who was also a barrister got so involved in bad feeling surrounding a campaign to remove the management board and replace it with a new one that she threatened the chairman with a libel suit. The barrister never followed up her allegations in court but the legal advice and legal representation required by the management board amounted to more than £20,000 – costs that were covered by the D&O policy.
So the moral of this story is that if you are involved in the management of a building, you never know who you might end up in a dispute with – anyone from a barrister to a fellow resident or even a squirrel! Your D&O cover could make the difference between peace of mind and financial disaster for you and your fellow directors, so make sure you are properly covered.
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IS YOUR BLOCK GATE SAFE?
Gate Safe was set up in the wake of the tragic deaths of the two children crushed by automated gates in 2010. The organisation was established to call for tighter guidelines and legislation around gate safety in a bid to prevent any further loss of life and to deliver an enhanced awareness of the critical safety issues associated with automated gates via training and education.
Gate Safe founder and chairman, Richard Jackson explains that although legislation exists along with various standards providing guidance on the manufacture and installation of electric gates, the interpretation and awareness of this information can lead to confusion. It is also clear that under current guidelines, there is no formal requirement to undertake any specialist training prior to becoming involved in the specification, supply or installation of automated gates and that the sale of such items is not limited to a list of professional, registered organisations.
Gate Safe would also like to see tighter controls in relation to the maintenance of gates which were installed prior to the current guidelines / legislation.
Richard’s advice is that, “Anyone who owns or comes into contact with a gate that has not been installed by a Gate Safe Aware or Door and Hardware Federation (DHF) trained installer,or one that is not being maintained by such an installer, should contact Gate Safe as soon as possible to ascertain whether the gate poses a genuine safety risk.”
For more information on Gate Safe and a list of recommended installers, go to
www.gate-safe.org
This year’s Gate Safety Week runs from the 12- 15 October 2015 and is aimed at raising public awareness of the dangers of poorly maintained powered gates. For more information go to
www.dhfonline.org.uk
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