Essex runs from the edge of east London out to the Tendring coast and up to the Suffolk border, and its rented homes are a real mix. Post-war new towns, Victorian seaside streets, garrison-town lets and coastal holiday homes all turn up on our lists. We cover the whole county from Chiswick.
New towns and post-war housing
Basildon and Harlow are post-war new towns, and a lot of their housing dates from the 1950s to the 1970s. Many former council homes are now privately let. In houses of that age we often find the original layout altered over time: an old cylinder replaced with a combi, but the cold tank left in the loft, still connected and barely used. Water sitting in a tank or a disused branch like that is just the sort of thing a Legionella risk assessment is there to catch. Removing it is usually a small job for our remedial works team.
The low-rise blocks of flats in these towns can also have shared tanks and communal pipework, so freeholders and managing agents need to know who looks after which parts.
Southend, Colchester and Chelmsford rentals
Southend-on-Sea has a big private rental market, with Edwardian terraces and large seafront houses that have been divided into flats or rented out as house shares. Westcliff and Leigh-on-Sea have plenty of the same. Colchester has its own mix: the University of Essex brings student lets, and the town's long history as a garrison town means rented family homes and shared houses close to the barracks. Chelmsford, as the county town, has a steady demand for flats and house shares from London commuters.
Landlords letting shared houses should check whether their property needs an HMO licence. Councils can add their own additional licensing on top of the national mandatory scheme, and conditions differ from one to the next, so it's worth reading your own council's guidance. Our post on whether landlords need a Legionella risk assessment explains the basic duty.
Holiday homes on the coast
Clacton, Frinton, Walton-on-the-Naze, Mersea Island and the villages along the Blackwater and Crouch have holiday cottages, chalets and flats let to visitors. Many are busy for a few months and empty for the rest. If you let a holiday home, you've got the same Legionella duties as a long-term landlord, and the empty spells are what make it riskier. Our guide to holiday lets and Airbnbs covers a changeover routine that works. If you run a larger holiday park with shared shower blocks, talk to us about what's on site and we'll tell you honestly what we can help with.
Care homes and schools
Essex has a large number of care homes, from small homes in converted houses to bigger purpose-built ones. Residents are vulnerable, so hot water needs to be kept hot enough to control Legionella while TMVs stop it scalding anyone at the tap. That means regular TMV servicing as well as monitoring. Schools across the county have the usual holiday-closure problem, with water standing still through August unless someone flushes it.
If sampling ever comes back positive, don't panic. Our post on what to do after a positive Legionella result walks through the next steps, and we can arrange follow-up water sampling.
Who supplies the water
Essex is split between suppliers. Essex & Suffolk Water serves a big slice of south and mid Essex, Anglian Water supplies parts of the north, and Affinity Water supplies other parts of the county. Whichever company you're with, the water is generally hard. Your bill or your supplier's postcode checker will tell you exactly who supplies you.
Getting to you
From Chiswick we reach Essex on the M25, then the A12, A127, A13 or M11 depending on where you are. Seaside towns get busy on sunny summer weekends, so we plan coastal visits for weekdays where we can, and group nearby properties into one trip.
Towns we cover in Essex
- Basildon
- Billericay
- Braintree
- Brentwood
- Chelmsford
- Clacton-on-Sea
- Colchester
- Epping
- Frinton-on-Sea
- Grays
- Harlow
- Leigh-on-Sea
- Loughton
- Maldon
- Rayleigh
- Saffron Walden
- Southend-on-Sea
- Thurrock
- Westcliff-on-Sea
- Wickford
- Witham
Our Legionella FAQs answer the common questions, and there's a list of other areas we cover.