With more than half of social tenants now disabled, Housing Associations can now access a cost-effective method of managing the risk of helping keep tenants safe when using stairs.

Legally, landlords must allow disabled tenants to make changes necessary to their full enjoyment of the premises. The landlord must reasonably accommodate their needs, one of the most common of which is mobility.

Under the Housing Health & Safety Rating System, the landlord has to take necessary steps to make stairway access safe, inside and outside of the property AND in common areas.

Inside the home, making the stairs safe usually means the physical installation of equipment (eg a stairlift) which then incurs cost and delay for it removal and making good when that tenant vacates the property. Common parts can pose problems, to ensure any solution does not adversely impact the safety of other, able tenants when they are using the stairs.

AAT’s pioneering S-Max Sella stairclimber/ stairclimbing wheelchair delivers an almost immediate way to enable a tenant with reduced mobility- whether a short- or long-term limitation- to safely transfer up, down almost any stairs or steps.

The portable unit is not fixed in any way to the stairs, leaving stairway access unimpeded within the property for other residents. Battery-powered, with an integral seat and safety strap/harness, it climbs or descends steps at a consistent pace set by the operator and folds compactly away when not in use. S-Max Sella has an impeccable safety record throughout its 20 years of utilisation on UK stairways. AAT also supplies S-Max which can be attached to a wheelchair.

AAT fully trains the care-giver in safe operation of the unit, and uniquely provides a range of packages covering service & maintenance and equipment management.

The S-Max Sella can be sourced by the tenant via the local authority social services, or forward-thinking housing associations can buy themselves to almost immediately make its housing stock safe for almost all tenants who either have, or develop, reduced mobility, as the S-Max Sella can be easily allocated to a new tenant when the original recipient no longer needs it(*).

'Stairs are one of the most common areas where people fall- whether disabled or not,' says Peter Wingrave AAT Director. 'All landlords have a duty of care to ensure tenant safety. Our S-Max Sella is proven over 20 years to manage the risk of stairs and steps, and make stairway access safe.'

Full details of the S-Max stairclimber can be found at https://www.aatgb.com/s-max-sella where a free, no obligation assessment can also be booked.