Ref No:
Policy Author: M Tuff
Reviewed by: C Lambert
Policy approved by & date (delete those not required)
Repairs Working Group
Tenants & Leaseholders Consultation Forum
Corporate Leadership Team
Cabinet
Date approved: 05/03/2013
Name and Date approved by Team Manager / November 2012 Mark Tuff
Equality Impact Assessment undertaken / Yes
Date approved:
September 2012 / No
Please state why:
Departments affected / All of Housing Services
Version / Date approved / Details of amendment / Creator/
amender / Approved by / Next review due
1 / 12/06/2007 / Approval / Chris Lambert / Cabinet
2 / 27/09/2012 / Review / Mark Tuff / 2015
3 / 05/03/2013 / Approval / Mark Tuff / Cabinet / 2016
1. Introduction
The provision of a Repairs and Maintenance Policy is designed to provide guidance / information for tenants and leaseholders and Council staff as well as helping to deliver an excellent repairs and maintenance service that enables people to live in well maintained, warm and safe homes that contribute to sustainable communities.
This Policy concentrates on the delivery and development of the repairs service and should be read in conjunction with the Council Asset Management Strategy and Void Property Management Policy.
This document builds upon our 2007 Repairs and Maintenance Policy and complements the work which has already been undertaken. We will continue to improve our levels of service delivery and reduce our reliance on responsive maintenance, completing more planned work, and adopt national best practice.
2. Objectives
To provide a customer focussed repairs and investment service, which achieves high levels of performance, customer satisfaction and good value for money.
This Policy will help us maintain our tenant’s homes, and to undertake the repairs they request in a fair and consistent manner.
Our Objectives
· Respond to all requests for repairs promptly
· Provide a responsive service for emergency repairs 24 hours a day and every day
· Offer appointments for all repairs that are not emergencies, except where these are in communal areas. Advise tenants that we are on our way
· Look to develop the service by adopting best practice
· Get the job done right first time and as quickly as possible
· Use tenants’ views / best practice to shape the service
· Carry out as many repairs as possible in a pre-planned way to minimise disruption to residents and obtain better value for money
· Provide guidance to tenants wishing to carry out alterations themselves
· Uphold tenants’ Right to Repair
· Comply with all our statutory and contractual obligations to tenants and leaseholders
· Maintain the Council’s properties in good condition
· Instigate a programme of improvements to bring all properties up to the Decent Homes standard by 2015 with the benefit of modern facilities
· Extend the useful life of all the Council’s properties and reduce long term maintenance costs
· Post inspect at least 10% of work carried out to ensure quality is maintained
· Post inspect any repairs that do not meet with tenants’ satisfaction
Environmental Objectives
We aim to limit the impact of Council housing on the environment by:
· Regularly monitoring the energy efficiency of Council housing stock
· Installing, whenever practical, low maintenance and energy efficient products and materials in our improvement programmes to improve comfort for tenants, lowering their energy costs and reducing water consumption and CO2 emissions
· Encouraging tenants to maximise the benefits from offers made by energy suppliers – including the supply of free loft and cavity wall insulation.
· Assessing the visual or other environmental impact of our programmes
· Sensitively considering the needs of elderly and disabled tenants and those with special needs so that we can limit later modifications and provide them with homes for their lifetimes
3. Who the Policy applies to
The Policy applies to all Tenants and Leaseholders of the Council. In addition the Policy shall apply to employees of the Council.
4. Scope of Policy (what it covers)
The Policy sets out the Council’s strategic vision for the delivery of repairs and maintenance, from 2012 – 2015 The Policy outlines how our repairs and maintenance service will be delivered to all of our tenants and leaseholders and how we will work with our partner contractors.
The Policy sets out our priorities for the physical care of the housing stock and surrounding environment. It also explains how, through our approach to repairs and maintenance, we will meet the needs of our Tenants. It is also designed to be a guide to tenants and leaseholders on the work that the Council is responsible for and the timescales that can be expected for such work to be completed. Tenants and Leaseholders should also have reference to the terms of their tenancy agreement or lease.
Responsibilities of the Council
The Council is responsible for some of the maintenance, repair and replacement of items in tenants’ homes. These are set out in the Tenancy Agreement and in the Tenants Repairs Handbook.
We will:
a) Keep the following in good repair, and repair any damage that has not been caused by tenants or their families, visitors or others (including children and pets):
· Drains, gutters and pipes on the outside of the property
· The roof
· External and internal walls and internal floors
· External and internal doors
· Windowsills, window catches and window frames, including necessary external painting and decorating
· Chimneys, chimney stacks and flues (but not including sweeping except during the annual service)
· Front paths, steps or other access routes
· Built in garages and stores
· Sewers, which are not the responsibility of another person or body
· Sanitary fittings in the property, such as baths, basins and WC’s
· External wall coatings, rough cast, dry cast, insulated render and the like.
b) Maintain any installation provided by the Council for water and space heating and for supplying water, gas and electricity (excluding meters). The Council will also arrange for gas and solid fuel appliances owned by it to be serviced. Once a year for gas and twice a year for solid fuel. The Council will undertake all reasonable actions necessary to enable access to be gained.
c) Take reasonable care to keep any shared entrance halls, stairways, lifts, passageways, and any other shared services (including electric lighting) in good repair.
d) Inspect and redecorate the outside of properties and any shared areas by means of cyclical programmes.
This Policy is designed to ensure that repairs are completed within time, in the most cost effective ways, to high standard and to the satisfaction of the tenant. We aim to ensure that all repairs and work completed in our homes are of an excellent quality and we have developed mechanisms to evaluate how we are performing. These measures include pre and post inspections of repairs.
Right to Repair
As part of the Citizen’s Charter introduced by the government, a Right to Repair scheme was introduced for Council Tenants in April 1994. It aims to make sure that certain small, urgent repairs, which might affect the health, safety, or security of residents, are done quickly and easily. The Council is obliged by The Secure Tenants of Local Housing Authorities (Right to Repair) Regulations 1994 to carry out these repairs within a specified time.
The Right to Repair Scheme lists 20 common repairs (below) and sets a prescribed period in which they must be completed. These repairs are called qualifying repairs.
If a qualifying repair is not completed within its prescribed period, tenants have the right to ask the Council to get a second contractor to complete the repair. If the repair is then not completed within a second prescribed period, tenants may be entitled to compensation of £10, plus £2 a day for every day that the repair remains unfinished. The most compensation a tenant can get in any one Right to Repairs claim is £50. The prescribed period starts from the first working day after the repair is reported, if that is a weekday. Otherwise it starts on the second working day after it is reported. A working day means a day which is not a public holiday, a Saturday or a Sunday.
The Council may lengthen the prescribed period if there are exceptional circumstances beyond its control. For example, if a water company has cut off the water supply, the Council may not be able to restore that supply, or be able to undertake other works that require water. If the problem is difficult to identify, the Council may need to do an inspection so that the repair work can be accurately ordered.
The repair must be one of the 20 defects listed in table 1, Prescribed Repairs. It must be the Council’s responsibility and it must not be owing to a tenant failing to fulfil their duties, or not acting in a tenant-like manner.
Table 1 Prescribed Repair
Defect / Prescribed period (working days)Total loss of electric power / 1
Partial loss of electric power / 3
Unsafe power or lighting socket, or electrical fitting / 1
Total loss of water supply / 1
Partial loss of water supply / 3
Total or partial loss of gas supply / 1
Blocked flue to open fire or boiler / 1
Total or partial loss of space heating or hot water between 1st November and 30th April / 1
Total or partial loss of space heating or hot water between 1st May and 31st October / 3
Blocked or leaking foul drain, soil stack, or (where there is no other working toilet in the home) toilet pan / 1
Toilet not flushing (where there is no other working toilet in the home) / 1
Blocked sink, bath or basin / 3
Tap which cannot be turned / 3
Leaking water or heating pipe, tank or cistern / 1
Leaking roof / 7
Insecure outside window, door or lock / 1
Loose or detached banister or handrail / 3
Rotten timber flooring or stair tread / 3
Door entry phone not working / 7
Mechanical extractor fan in kitchen or bathroom not working / 7
Right to Improve
All tenants have the right to improve their home, any improvements will need to be authorised by the Council prior to the works being undertaken. The cost of the improvement will be the responsibility of the tenant however, future responsibility for repairs and maintenance will be accepted by the Council providing that the improvements have been completed in accordance with building regulations, the provision of regulatory certification (where appropriate) and the approval of the Council. Copy of the certification documents are to be provided by the tenant and handed over at the post inspection to the Council representative.
Responsibilities of the Tenant
Tenants are also responsible for the maintenance, repair or replacement of some of the items in their homes. These are set out in the Tenancy Agreement and in the Tenants’ Handbook.
Tenants are responsible for:
· Aerials and television points (where not communal aerials)
· Door, locks and keys
· Replacement of tap washers, plugs and chains to baths and sinks
· Toilet seats, ball valve adjustment, chains and handles
· Smoke detector batteries
· Internal consumable parts of solid fuel fires – like fire bars
· Chimney sweeping (except as part of an annual service by the landlord)
· Effects of condensation caused by lifestyle, e.g. mould and damp caused by condensation on walls ceilings, floors, windows and mastic seals
· Frost precautions
· Internal decorations
· Simple repairs to kitchen cupboards, including catches and hinge alignment.
· Relighting pilot lights
Tenants may request a heating system drain down to prevent frost damage causing water leaks during a period of absence in cold weather; however this will be chargeable to the tenant.
Tenants will also be responsible for the repair or replacement of any item in a property damaged due to neglect, carelessness or deliberate action on the part of the tenant, their family, visitors or others, other than fair wear and tear. The Council reserves the right to recharge the tenant for any repair resulting from the above.
The Council may pursue recovery of any cost of repairs from either the current or outgoing tenants.
Where safety or specialist work is concerned (for example, repairs to PVC windows) the Council reserves the right to carry out the work itself and recharge the tenant.
Tenants must not unreasonably prevent access to their properties and must tell the Council as soon as they are aware that a repair needs to be done and allow access to have the repair carried out within the dedicated time scales in order to qualify for any compensation scheme.
More detail about recharges can be found in the Council’s Rechargeable Works Policy and procedure.
Responsive repairs Categories
A responsive repair is most commonly a job carried out as a result of wear and tear, accidental or deliberate damage, or impact of the weather. It is normally of relatively low value and is undertaken as a single job. It is usually notified to the Council by the tenant.
We aim to minimise the amount of work undertaken through responsive repairs by adding them to planned programmes where possible. Exceptions to this are where the property is not wind and water tight, the repair issue is life threatening, will cause injury, is a major threat to a tenant’s security, or will cause more than minor damage to the property.
Except for those jobs that are classified as emergencies or for repairs to communal areas, like stairwells, we will endeavour to give tenants an appointment for repair visits when they first contact us with their request. This will be arranged to suit them where possible and will be in line with the repairs priority times described below.
The priority assigned to the request will be explained to the tenant at the time of Initial contact.
Priority Categories
Priority Categories are defined as Emergency (E), Urgent (U), Routine/Normal (N) and Programmed Repairs (B):
Emergency Repairs (Category E); Response within 4 hours or 24 hours