The UK’s estimated one million residential landlords are facing a growing, potentially killer threat – HOUSE CLEANING.
But this is no ordinary hour of tidying, dusting and vacuuming. This is seriously life-threatening cleaning.
And the problem is growing so fast that the Residential Landlords Association is drawing the special attention of its members who own over 100,000 private rented properties throughout the UK.
For many of them regularly have to clean houses where tenants have died … sometimes been murdered … or have simply been left behind in a state that could leave an amateur cleaner seriously ill. Or dead.
“This new growth industry, known as ‘extreme cleaning’ is sweeping in from the United States,” says Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association. “Fortunately it’s not an everyday need but it’s becoming more common than we want to think about.”
That’s why the new issue of the RLA magazine, the ‘Residential Property Investor’ is running a two-page feature on what can be the dangerous, high-risk hazard of cleaning up.
Tenants who live and die alone can often stay undiscovered for days or weeks – with decomposition leading to leakage of bodily fluids and potentially dangerous ‘bio-hazard waste’
Murder scenes can leave even more horrific problems behind.
That’s when specialist techniques and equipment are necessary to deal with infectious material, potentially lethal viruses, dangerously discarded hypodermic needles, vermin infestations and associated diseases.
“Property owners should never do this cleaning work themselves – this is a potentially deadly
job,” says specialist Peter Jones who runs the Lancashire-based extreme cleaning business ‘999 Cleaners’.
No overalls for his staff. They wear disposable biohazard protection suits, respirators, disposable face shields, over-boots and special needle-stick resistant gloves.
“These forensically trained professionals are equipped to deal with levels of risk that we don’t want our members to even think about tackling themselves,” says Alan Ward.
“We regularly have to clean up the mess of departing tenants in order to get a house ready for the next ones to move in … and our properties are often left in a state that most people would not even step into.
“But with death, criminal trauma and various extreme cases, we are talking about a whole different level where even getting pricked by a discarded hypodermic needle can have fatal consequences.
“Extreme cleaning services are, sadly, becoming an essential part of our professional lives.”
The Residential Landlords Association is a leading national organisation with members owning over 100,000 properties in the UK’s professional private rented sector – www.rla.org.uk
Article for Westcountry Landlords Association News letter
Ref – Waste Transfer Notes 3/11/09 (To be published)
Already Property Services is a licensed waste carrier, due to the demand of our customers, providing our customers disposal services deemed to be commercial.
Because we are a business we are regulated by the Environment Agency within the Control of Pollution Amendment Act, we have to pass to all our clients Waste Transfer Notes when hired for waste collections and disposal from any waste stream type.
Many small businesses and individuals are still unaware of the implications of hiring a person who does not hand them a waste transfer note, they unfortunately think it does not concern their business activities, however this paper can be back tracked against inventories and disposal receipts, and also investigated by the EA.
Please always staple waste transfer notes with your receipts.
The implications are that waste carriers can lose their licence or be fined if they dismiss their responsibilities and do not provide a note. The client that hiring the waste carrier can be just as responsible and liable for prosecution as the carrier.
In a investigative hind sight, if you operate a property management company or you are a developer or builder, or landlord, you may be expected to produce a certain amount of waste per year. If you have no evidence of waste transfer notes and waste expenses, you could be suspected of moving commercial waste yourself or getting the tenant to dispose of it on your behalf, or finding other methods.
Please note that civil amenity sites in Plymouth have CTTV cameras installed to take registration numbers of cars, in other Council boroughs they also use Security Guards to spot the same old faces who prove to be commercial tradesmen.
Please beware that we all have an obligation to run our businesses correctly, and be aware that waste carriers are being caught and convicted. So make sure you are protected, get a waste transfer note.
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Comment by Ian Lavill — 4/11/2009 #
OMG it’ll be a Channel 4 series next! I found a tenant on my birthday last year, sitting on the loo and very much deceased, after a few weeks in a heated flat. After 8 hours of SOCO and local CID, we were faced with a very unpleasant scene – I wish I’d have known about 999 Cleaners, it was a rubber gloves and skip job!
Comment by Sian Astley — 4/11/2009 #