8 Bramble Court

1 Recommendations

In priority order. Each carries the standard it comes from, where it applies, and the evidence photographed on the day.

1

Remove, clean, descale and disinfect the head and hose, or replace if heavily fouled

Heavy scale was present on the shower head in the bathroom (first floor). Showers are the only outlets in most homes that produce a respirable spray, and scale gives bacteria a rough surface to settle on and somewhere to shelter from heat and disinfection.

Then clean and disinfect it quarterly.

Location: Bathroom (First floor)

HSG274 Pt2 2.142 — showerheads in domestic rented property

High · 30 days

2

Check the boiler's hot water setting first

Hot water at the kitchen reached only 47.9 °C after one minute of running. Hot water at the bathroom (first floor) reached only 48.6 °C after one minute of running. Hot water should reach 50 °C within one minute at the outlet.

Water is heated on demand here and none is stored, so the only causes available are that setting, the length of the pipe run, and missing insulation on it. Retest once corrected.

Applies to: Kitchen and Bathroom (First floor)

HSG274 Pt2 para 2.82

Medium · 3 months

3

Cut the redundant section back to the nearest point of flowing water, leaving no dead end

Redundant pipework was identified in the kitchen, described as capped 15 mm feed under the sink where a dishwasher was removed. The isolating valve is closed and the pipe is capped about 20 cm beyond it. Water within it never moves and cannot be flushed by normal use.

Capping the pipe close to the fitting does not remove the stagnant volume.

Location: Kitchen

HSG274 Pt2 2.166 — dead legs should be removed where reasonably practicable

Medium · 3 months

4

Descale the fitting, then keep on top of it as part of routine cleaning

Heavy limescale was visible on the fittings in the kitchen. Scale shelters bacteria from heat and disinfection and provides a surface they colonise.

Where scale rebuilds quickly, water softening or inhibition is worth considering — but maintain any device fitted, or it becomes a habitat of its own.

Location: Kitchen

HSG274 Pt2 — cleanliness of outlets

Medium · 6 months

5

Disconnect the filling loop at one end and store it, reconnecting only when the system needs repressurising

The heating system filling loop at the boiler in the kitchen was found connected. The flexible hose links the mains drinking supply to the sealed heating circuit; left in place it is both a stagnant length of pipework that will not be replenished in normal use, and a route by which inhibitor-dosed heating water could be drawn back into the drinking supply if the mains pressure drops.

Confirm a double check valve is fitted where it tees off the mains cold supply.

Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 · HSG274 Pt2

Medium · 3 months

6

Disconnect and drain the hose after each use and store it off the ground

A hose was left connected to the outside tap. Water standing in a hose warms quickly in sunlight and is discharged as spray at first use; if the open end lies in a water butt, pond, puddle or container, a drop in mains pressure can draw that water back toward the drinking supply.

Confirm a double check valve is fitted to the outside tap.

Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999

Medium · 3 months

7

When these are next disturbed or replaced, use WRAS-approved hoses or rigid copper

Braided flexible connector hoses serve the fittings in the kitchen and the bathroom (first floor). The rubber lining of many flexible connectors is EPDM, a material bacteria colonise readily as it ages and pits.

No urgent action is needed — check their condition at routine visits and replace any that are perished, kinked or past their stated life.

Applies to: Kitchen and Bathroom (First floor)

HSG274 Pt2 — materials of construction; WRAS

Low · 6 months

8

Insulate the visible run of the incoming main, and check the insulation remains continuous and undamaged at routine visits

The visible pipework at the incoming main is not fully insulated. The incoming supply is the coldest water in the house, and bare pipework lets it warm towards room temperature before it reaches a single tap.

HSG274 Pt2 — insulation of cold water services

Low · 6 months

2Assessment of the Risk

This property is fed directly from the mains with no stored water. That is the lowest-risk arrangement a dwelling can have: water arrives cold, is heated only as it is used, and does not stand still anywhere by design.

What raises it above that baseline is specific to this visit: redundant pipework holding water that never moves and hot water arriving at outlets below the 50 °C the guidance looks for.

The shower in the bathroom (first floor) is where water becomes a breathable spray, and so what matters most here. The recommendations above deal with the conditions found upstream of it.

Completing the priority action above breaks the chain at the point where it is easiest to break — the conditions that let numbers build. The remaining actions reduce what can get in and what can stand still.

3Property and Water System Description

The property is a terraced house, built between 1970 and 2000, arranged over two floors, with two bedrooms, of brick construction. It was occupied at the time of the survey by two residents.

Water enters the property from the public mains, with the internal stop tap located under the kitchen sink. The incoming supply pipe is copper, and the supply was recorded at 14.8 °C.

Cold water is supplied directly from the mains to every fitting, with no storage tank. This is the lower-risk arrangement: water is not held anywhere on its way to an outlet.

Hot water is produced on demand by a combination boiler. None is stored, which removes the largest single store of warm water a dwelling can have.

Water is distributed to six fittings across two rooms (Kitchen, Bathroom (First floor)). Of these, the shower in the bathroom (first floor) produces a breathable spray, and is therefore the point at which the system could expose anyone to airborne water.

5Water System Assets

Each asset that supplies, stores, heats or treats water, with the detail and photographs recorded at the survey. Values outside the standards applied are shown in red.

Incoming Mains Supply

Stop tap	Under the kitchen sink
Stop tap operation	Turns freely
Pipe material	Copper
Insulation of visible run	Bare — no insulation
Supply temperature	14.8 °C
Reading taken at	Kitchen sink

See recommendation 8.

Cold Water Storage — None

The loft was accessed and inspected. No cold water storage tank serves this property, and every cold outlet is supplied directly from the incoming main. Whether any pipework from a removed tank remains was not established.

Mains-fed throughout is the most favourable arrangement a dwelling can have. Water that is never stored cannot warm, stand or be contaminated in a tank, which removes the largest single source of risk in a domestic system and is the reason this assessment and its scheme of control are as short as they are.

Surveyor’s note. Loft hatch on the landing, accessed and inspected. No cold water storage tank and no capped tank pipework above the insulation.

Hot Water System

Type	Combination boiler — instantaneous, no storage
Make and model	Worcester Bosch
Scale inhibitor / inline filter	None fitted

See recommendations 2, 10.

Other Plumbed Equipment

Outside tap

6Hot and Cold Water Distribution

Hot water should reach 50 °C within one minute at the outlet and be stored at 60 °C; cold should be below 20 °C within two minutes. Throughout this document a reading or note shown in red falls outside those limits or needs attention; green marks a reading in range or a protective feature present.

7Satisfactory at This Assessment

8Standards Applied

The standards this property's water system is judged against — only those applying to the system actually found here are listed. These are the figures set out in the guidance named beside each, not house rules.

A domestic property is not required to hold a temperature monitoring regime in the way a commercial building is. These figures are the standard against which the system was judged on the day, and the target any corrective work should achieve.

9Scope and Limitations

What this document is. This is a Legionella risk assessment for an ordinary domestic dwelling. It identifies and categorises the risk from Legionella bacteria so that it can be managed, based on what could be seen and measured at the property on the date of the survey. It is not a certificate, not a guarantee of safety, and not confirmation that the system is free of Legionella. No such document exists: the risk from Legionella can be controlled, but never wholly eliminated.

Who carried it out, and on what footing. HSE guidance for residential landlords states: "Most landlords can assess the risk themselves and do not need to be professionally trained or accredited", and that this duty "does not require an in-depth, detailed assessment" (hse.gov.uk — Legionella and landlords' responsibilities; Crown copyright). This assessment was carried out on that basis by the person named below, using the DwellFlow platform. DwellFlow structures the survey, applies the temperature and control thresholds set out under Standards Applied, reads the completed survey back in full to check that it holds together, and produces this document from what was recorded. It does not attend the property and it does not verify what was recorded there.

What was not examined. The survey was non-intrusive and limited to accessible, visible areas. Pipework concealed within walls, floors, boxing or the roof void was not inspected, so further redundant sections may exist. No water samples were taken — routine Legionella sampling is not normally required for a domestic property of this type, and HSE guidance states that health and safety law does not require a landlord to obtain a "legionella test certificate". Temperatures were recorded on one occasion and represent conditions at that moment. Any item recorded as not established is listed in this document, and is a limitation of the assessment rather than a finding of safety.

Premises outside this scope. This assessment is for a domestic dwelling. Premises registered as a care home or a children's home are commercial premises and require assessment by a trained, competent Legionella risk assessor; this document is not suitable for them. Neither is it suitable for communal or shared water systems serving more than one dwelling, such as the storage tanks, booster sets or communal hot water plant of a block of flats. Where any of those were identified they are recorded here for referral, not assessed.

Where the duty sits, and the limits of our liability. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, the duty to assess and control the risk rests with whoever is responsible for the property. That duty cannot be transferred — not to the person who surveyed, and not to DwellFlow. This document exists to inform the duty holder; acting on it remains theirs. The assessment reflects the property as found on the date of survey, and alterations, changes of use or changes of occupancy after that date are not covered by it. DwellFlow provides the platform and the method, and is not liable for loss arising from information recorded inaccurately or incompletely at the property, or from recommendations in this document not being acted upon. Nothing in this document limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else which cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

11About Legionnaires' Disease

Legionella bacteria occur naturally in rivers, lakes and groundwater, and in very small numbers in mains drinking water. At those numbers they are harmless. They become a risk only when conditions in a building's own water system allow them to multiply, and the water is then inhaled as a fine spray.

Three conditions have to coincide. The water must sit somewhere between 20 °C and 45 °C, the range in which the bacteria multiply. It must remain there long enough for numbers to build — stagnation in a little-used outlet, a redundant length of pipe, or a storage vessel that turns over slowly. And it must then be dispersed as a breathable aerosol, which in a home means principally a shower, a spray tap or a spa bath.

Legionnaires' disease is a form of pneumonia. It cannot be caught from another person, and it cannot be caught by drinking water. People over 45, smokers, and those with a weakened immune system or an existing lung or heart condition are more susceptible than the general population, which is why the vulnerability of occupants forms part of the risk score. Anyone concerned about their health should speak to their GP or NHS 111.

12References and Further Reading

This assessment cites the clause behind each recommendation. The full documents are available as follows, and are worth reading in full by anyone responsible for a property.

14Document Control