Repairs

These are repairs which could cause immediate hazard or danger to you or your home. An example of an emergency repair would be a total loss of electrical power. We aim to respond to emergency repairs within 4 hours.  During the winter period (31st October to 1st March) we will re-categorise any total or partial loss of space or water heating as an emergency repair. If you have no alternative form of heating, you will be offered temporary heating.  

These are repairs that do not pose any immediate danger, however they will cause inconvenience or further damage to your home if not repaired. An example of an urgent repair would include partial loss of electrical power. We will respond to all urgent repairs within 5 working days.

Routine repairs are defects that do not cause serious discomfort, inconvenience or nuisance to the household and will not cause long term damage to you home. We will respond to routine repairs within 20 working days. 

Packaged repairs are repairs which are more cost effective to carry out to a number of properties in one geographical area at the same time. An example of a packaged repair is guttering repairs or cleaning. We will respond to packaged repairs raised within 90 working days. 

Investment works are replacements of major elements within your home which have come to the end of their life expectancy. An example of investment works would include replacing old kitchen units and/or bathroom fittings.    Regarding Investment and Cyclical Works we will:

• Consult for schemes such as Communal Environmental improvements i.e. fencing which affects a number of properties. We will provide opportunities for individual consultation and will feedback the results before work starts.
• Contact you in writing to advise in advance of any works within the coming year.
• Visit you in your home six weeks prior to work starting to carry out a scoping survey.
• Where we replace major items (kitchen and bathroom suites etc) we will offer choice of colours and finishes where possible.
• Throughout the works a Customer Care Officer will visit and be available for customer requests.
• Should we need to interrupt any water or electricity supplies to your home, we will minimise disruption and reconnect them at the end of each working day.
• We will keep at least one room habitable during major works.

Aids and Adaptations are repairs which help people continue to live independently and comfortably in their homes for as long as possible. An example of the kind of work aids and adaptations include are installing handrails and/or stair lifts to a property. Following the approval of a customer’s adaptation request the categories below will apply:

• Category 1: completed within 24 - 36 hours. An example of category 1 would be carrying out minor alterations to allow customers to be discharged from hospital
• Category 2: 15 working days e.g. grab rails, lever taps
• Category 3: 30 working days e.g. ramped access
• Category 4: 6 weeks e.g. stair lifts
• Category 5: 6 months e.g. level access showers

We will service all our customers’ stair lifts / vertical lifts and ceiling track hoists twice a year.

Repairs that ensure your home is kept safe and compliant. An example of cyclical repairs and maintenance works include external painting and gas appliance servicing. The cyclical repairs and maintenance we carry out include:

• an annual Gas Safety Inspection to your home.
• we'll service and test annually your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors
• we'll carry out an Electrical Condition Test to your home every 5 years
• we'll service and inspect all of your lifts, dry riser’s water pumps and lighting conductors and all serviceable items within our homes in line with manufacturers recommendations.

We will let you know in advance when we will be visiting you.  

These are repairs which need to be dealt with outside of working hours where we use an out of hours contractors to attend the repair.  This could be where a faulty lock means your property cannot be secured, or where a structural issue poses a health and safety risk.