FAQs

We’re keeping residents updated in a number of ways, including through letters, newsletters, and face-to-face events and meetings. We’ll be putting more information about upcoming events and meetings on our website in January so please look out for more information about these.

Elm Road newsletters

Our monthly newsletters keep residents updated on the latest news and service updates. They also provide the latest updates on our progress with the remediation project.

The newsletter is emailed to all residents. If you are not receiving these, please let us know so we can check that we have your correct contact details. We can also provide a print version to any resident who requests this.

Resident meetings

We hold regular resident meetings and all Elm Road residents are invited to attend. Please join us for these if you can. We look forward to seeing you there.

You can contact us in the following ways:

• For general enquiries, contact us at ElmRd@abri.co.uk
• To report a repair: Tel: 0300 123 1567, or email: info@octavia.org.uk
• To report a pest issue: Tel: 0300 123 1567, or email: info@octavia.org.uk

If you want to speak to us about any queries or concerns, please contact:

• Your Customer Housing Lead Aimie Law – Aimie.Law@abri.co.uk, 020 3824 9474
• Your Housing Partnership Manager Naim Ahmed - Naim.Ahmed2@abri.co.uk, 020 4615 0437

If your contact details have changed recently and you want to be sure the information we hold about you is up to date, please let us know so we can check this.

• Your building has a Simultaneous Evacuation fire strategy.
• Upon hearing the fire alarm, you and everyone in your household must leave immediately and evacuate the building.
• Please make sure that everyone in your home knows your building’s evacuation strategy and what to do in the event of a fire. This information can be found in the communal areas.

Your safety is our priority and ensuring your building complies with fire safety requirements is our responsibility. We work closely with fire authorities and the local council to ensure your building meets all fire safety requirements – and that these stay up to date.

Fire risk assessments are important for the fire safety of your building. Independent Fire Risk Assessors carry to out regular inspections in all our buildings to ensure safety is being maintained. You may see them in your building carrying out an inspection. The assessors will log any fires safety concerns they find in a Fire Risk Assessment report and landlords have to address these within a set period of time.

During fire risk assessment checks, our Fire Risk Assessors:

• make sure fire equipment is in good working order and not damaged
• check that communal areas are clear and free from fire risks and the building compartmentation is functioning correctly (e.g. fire doors that isolate an area in the event of a fire)
• they may also carry out visual inspections to home front doors.

Every home at Elm Road is fitted with smoke alarms which are designed to detect the presence of smoke particles in the air inside your home.

Homes have also been fitted with a temporary building-wide common fire and heat detection system, known as an L5 system. This is to provide extra fire security for residents until the building remediation work is completed. You will recognise this in your home as a large device that has been fitted close to an external wall. In the unlikely event of a fire, it will trigger a building-wide alarm to alert all residents to immediately evacuate

The L5 fire alarm system has been installed as a temporary extra security measure that will be kept in place until the cladding remediation work to your building is completed. It is known as a common alarm and in the unlikely event of a fire it will sound throughout the building alerting everyone to immediately evacuate.

All buildings at Elm Road have a Simultaneous Evacuation procedure. This means that on hearing the building-wide fire alarm, you and everyone in your household must follow the advice on the Fire Action Notice displayed in the Common Parts of the building and leave the building immediately. Please ensure that everyone in your home knows the evacuation strategy and what to do in the event of a fire.

If you, or anyone living with you, needs assistance with leaving the building safely if there was a fire, please let us know. This may be because your circumstances have changed. We'll arrange for someone to make an appointment with you to carry out a person-centred risk assessment and put a plan in place to support you. This is known as a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP). You can find out more about PEEPs on the Fire Protection Association website.

If you think any fire detection equipment in your building is not working or has been tampered with, it’s important that you report this to us immediately. We’ll instruct our contractors to carry out a fault-finding investigation and make any necessary repairs.

Waking watch is a temporary interim fire safety measure, put in place while fire safety issues with a building are being resolved. It can be replaced with other more suitable temporary solutions like purposely installed common fire alarms, as we have done at Elm Road. The aim of a waking watch is to patrol a building to ensure that there is sufficient warning in the event of a fire and support a Simultaneous Evacuation.

When all the remedial works needed for the buildings are completed and assessed by an independent assessor to ensure they meet current safety regulations, we will then be able to remove the temporary L5 alarm system and return your building to a Stay Put fire strategy. We will write to you before making any changes to the building fire strategy so please follow the Simultaneous Evacuation procedure until further notice, as set out in the Fire Action Notice displayed in the Common Parts of your building.

Watch this video for more information on waking watch and common fire alarms.

An External Wall System form (EWS1) was introduced to help mortgage lenders confirm that a building meets current building fire safety standards. It provides a rating showing whether the building complies and if any remediation work is needed.

These will be commissioned after the remedial works to each individual block at Elm Road has been signed off as being completed to the required standard. At this point a Fire Engineer will produce the new EWS1 with a favourable rating. We cannot say exactly when this will be available for your building as it will depend on the order in which the blocks are remediated in the works programme. We will have more information to share about this in early 2026 when the timeline for the remediation programme will be confirmed.

Leaseholders will not be charged for these costs. The building remediation is being funded through the government’s Cladding Safety Scheme. For further information on leaseholder rights with building cladding remediation, visit the following websites:

• Leasehold Advisory Service - How am I protected by the Building Safety Act? - The Leasehold Advisory Service

• GOV.UK - Remediation costs: what leaseholders do and do not have to pay

• GOV.UK - The Building Safety Act - GOV.UK

You have to pay your service charge, which includes costs for day-to-day repairs. This is not related to the cladding remediation. It covers the day-to-day services we provide to keep your building safe.

Please continue to report a repair in the usual way:

• To report a repair, tel: 0300 123 1567, or email: info@octavia.org.uk

Please report any pest issues you see so that we can direct our contractors to visit and check the area and take any necessary action.

• To report a pest issue, tel: 0300 123 1567, or email: info@octavia.org.uk

There are a number of contractors involved with our fire safety and repairs work at Elm Road. Please see below for a list of the principal contractors that usually work here.

Our contractors carry ID, dress in uniform and usually arrive in a branded van, so these are the things to look out for when someone comes to your door. You may see them working around the building and some may contact you directly, if they need to arrange to visit your home. If you have a query about why someone is contacting you to arrange to visit your home, please speak to us about this.

For most people, if you’re 18 or over and own or rent a home, you’ll usually need to pay Council Tax. There are some discounts and exemptions that you can find out more about on the Brent Council website: Who pays Council Tax | Brent Council

For residents currently living in temporary alternative accommodation, council tax liability is dependent on your current address and circumstances. The type of accommodation residents have been temporarily moved to will determine how much council tax is due. There are some exceptions in place for residents who are unable to return to their home. Contact us directly if you have any questions about your circumstances.

To discuss your individual situation, please contact the Octavia Elm Road team for advice. For all other council tax enquiries, contact Brent Council: Council Tax | Brent Council.

Residents who are displaced from their home and cannot return are being considered for resettlement. If you are currently displaced from your home but you can return in the future, you may be offered a decant or a permanent move, based on your housing need.

Octavia has a procedure to support the movement of residents who are not able to return to their home. These residents have been contacted by Abri’s Resettlement Officer to look into their rehousing options. The next step is for the team to either find them alternative temporary home as a longer term decant, help them to find an alternative permanent home or support them with moving to an available home of their choice via Locata.

Abri’s Resettlement Office and Octavia’s Housing Team will support you with moving to an alternative new home. Any costs associated with moving will be covered by Octavia. Depending on their circumstances, some residents may be entitled to homeloss payment and disturbance costs, this will be discussed with residents individually.