If your property has an immersion heater with a manual reset button, we would request that you contact us by email HousingRepairs@tendringdc.gov.uk or 01255 686477 on any occasion that this needs to be reset, rather than doing this yourself. Our contractor will then be able to make sure that your immersion heater is working properly before it is reset.

Where we install new immersion heaters in the future we will also make sure that the reset button is sealed within the unit and can only be reset by a suitably competent person, to further ensure your safety.

Important safety advice has been issued to raise awareness of a rare but potentially serious scalding risk from domestic hot water systems.

This advice has been issued following two similar fatal incidents elsewhere in the country in the last five years where a large volume of near boiling water poured through bedroom ceilings onto occupants sleeping below. The cause of these incidents was a faulty thermostat on an immersion heater on the hot water system.

An overheating immersion cylinder will normally show warning signs and these typically include:

• Excessively hot water coming out of the hot water taps.
• Excessive noise or "bubbling" from the hot water cylinder.
• Hot water coming out of certain cold water taps (some storage cisterns also feed cold water taps in the bathroom)
• Steam/moisture in the roof space.

In any of these circumstances you should immediately switch off the immersion heater in your home and contact us by email on HousingRepairs@tendringdc.gov.uk or 01255 686477.

You should not use your immersion heater again until after we have arranged for the system to be checked over.

The council has alerted its maintenance contractors and systematic checks will be carried out to ensure that no problems of this nature exist in any of our properties. All of our properties are also thoroughly inspected prior to letting. Further information can be obtained from the Health & Safety Executive through the useful link above.