TENANTS fear for their safety after discovering carbon monoxide alarms in their homes were branded unsafe by a consumer watchdog magazine.

The discovery was made by a concerned homeowner who recognised the carbon monoxide (CO) alarm in a “Don’t Buy” alert in Which? magazine.

The alarm - called Aico Ei202 - was criticised in the October edition after their tests highlighted failures.

The resident, who lives in The Jordans, in Maple Square, Southend, said: “I was horrified when I saw the alarm they’re saying no one should buy is the same as the one that South Essex Homes has bought and put in my flat - and they’ve probably bought thousands for all of their flats.

“I don’t feel safe and I’m going to buy an alarm that I’m confident will work properly and get someone to put that in, but I shouldn’t have to do that and neither should everyone else living in council flats.

“Lots of them can’t afford it and anyway the council is responsible for its tenants’ safety and they should sort this out - I can’t believe they bought these dodgy alarms in the first place.”

A spokesman for South Essex Homes said the company will be addressing the concerns with the manufacturer.

He added: “At the moment, only landlords of private residential properties are legally obliged to fit carbon monoxide (CO) alarms - however we do supply CO alarms to every property as an additional fire precaution, as the safety of our residents is paramount.

“The Aico alarms we currently use comply with all British Standards and are tested annually to ensure they are working correctly. Should a detector be found to be faulty on this inspection it is replaced.”

The spokesman added detectors will now be subjected to extra test with and the issue will be discussed with the manufacturer “urgently”.

“However in light of this information, which we were not aware of, we shall be undertaking additional tests of the detectors and have contacted the manufacturer to discuss this as a matter of urgency.”

A Freedom of Information request submitted by Southend campaigner Colin Nickless revealed that South Essex Homes uses these CO detectors in their properties.

Mr Nickless said: “My main concern is that obviously these have a terrible reputation.

“It seems to imply when they are used once, they then become defunct. This is incredibly worrying.

“Why was the decision made to purchase that alarm and what research was done before making this decision?”

The report in Which? stated: “When we tested this alarm, we were concerned to see that after being exposed to a large amount of CO, all three samples failed to recover and continue to detect the gas.”

The item passed all other gas detection tests.

Aico said it is concerned by the findings and takes all matters of alarm quality and reliability very seriously.

Bosses added all alarms are independently tested.