Falkirk Council has to force entry to 1300 homes to fit interlinked smoke alarms
dailyrecord.co.ukFalkirk Council had to use forced entry for 1300 homes to fit interlinked smoke alarms in all of the district's council houses, causing it to breach quality standards.
Fitting the new smoke alarms is now a legal requirement for landlords but the council found that many tenants were unwilling to allow access.
Just 18 per cent of Falkirk 's tenants responded to an initial letter and a forced access programme started in June. Read more: Falkirk Council keep glass recycling at the kerbside as bottle return scheme stalls By the end of August, 603 were outstanding and the council is on target to have all interlinked smoke alarms fitted by the end of October.A report to Falkirk Council's executive on Tuesday stated: "Despite repeated attempts to engage with households, access to properties remained the biggest issue.
Forced entries, to fit the interlinked smoke alarms, started in June 2023. This led to significant reductions in the number of properties still requiring interlink smoke alarms."The council says that the delays in fitting the interlinked alarms was a significant reason for just 70 per cent of council properties meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard in 2022/23.
Read more on dailyrecord.co.uk