Building Safety Customer Group

Purpose of the group

Our Building Safety Customer Group discusses and consults on building safety matters in our high-rise residential buildings. 

It is a voluntary group, made up of customers who live in our buildings or their nominated representatives.

The group work together with Gentoo on all matters affecting building safety in our high-rise residential buildings.

We look to this group to challenge decisions that affect building safety and how effectively we communicate and engage with them.

We are accountable to this group for all the decisions we make that affect building safety.

Group meetings

The group meet every 2 months with our Building Safety Team either in one of our high-rise residential buildings or a Gentoo office.

The meetings are typically 2 hours long, with a small section at the end of the meeting for any non-building safety related matters.

The group are also offered opportunities to go on visits to meet with our contractors and explore other buildings. 

Customer engagement strategy 

We asked all of our customers who live in our high-rise residential buildings to have their say on our building safety engagement strategy.

The strategy allows customers to play a vital role in making sure that your building is safe, your building remains safe, and you and your neighbours feel safe.

You can read the full strategy by clicking here. 

Reporting building safety incidents

Gentoo must enable customers and anyone else who is in the building to report safety issues relating to fire or the structure of the building. These reports must be investigated and reported to the Building Safety Regulator if they meet a specific criteria. This is called a ‘mandatory occurrence’.

What is a mandatory occurrence?

This term is used for very specific types of risks that have or could cause death or serious injury to a significant number of people. Such as:

• The spread of fire or something that could lead to the spread of fire, for example from one flat to another
• The total or partial collapse of the building
• Failure of fire safety equipment such as fire doors or smoke detectors

Please report any concerns to us, so that we can assess whether it is a mandatory occurrence or not. We will take action to rectify all building safety concerns regardless of whether or not they need to be reported to the Building Safety Regulator.

How to report a building safety issue

If you have any concerns about the structure of your building or the potential for fire to spread, please contact the team by:

• Emailing fireandbuildingsafety@gentoogroup.com
• Calling 0191 525 5000 and asking to speak to a member of the Fire and Building Safety Team

How Gentoo will manage your building safety issues

The Fire and Building Safety Team will thoroughly investigate your issues as soon as possible and record the findings and recommendations. This investigation will include:

• Identifying the root cause of the issue
• Recommendations for preventing it from happening again
• Identifying if it is happening in any other high-rise residential buildings

You can contact the team for an update at any time during our working hours on the contact details above.

Any information collected as part of the investigation will be stored in line with Gentoo’s Data Protection Policy.

How to get involved

Any customer who lives in one of our high-rise residential buildings is welcome to join the group.

If you would like to get involved you can email fireandbuildingsafety@gentoogroup.com or speak to Stacey Thwaites, Building Safety Advisor directly on 07801 532 594