Repairs and maintenance (COVID-19)

Emergencies

We’re continuing to carry out emergency repairs and some other targeted safety activity (such as gas safety checks, fire alarm testing and lift maintenance).

You can continue to call us about emergency repairs on 0300 5000 926 or 0300 330 9496 if you’re a market rent customer. (Key worker and Leicester student customers: please refer to the localised information we’ve sent you and continue to contact us in the usual way.)

Repairs

If you’ve got an internal or external repair that was cancelled, we should have contacted you now to rebook this and we're progressing well to clear this backlog. But please remember that some of these jobs will also take longer so that we can follow social distancing requirements.

We’re also now taking calls to book new routine repairs but our phone lines may be busier at the moment (particularly on Mondays and Fridays).

Grounds maintenance, maintaining communal areas and work in empty homes are continuing as normal and we’ve also started to carry out some planned works.

If we do need to visit you, we’re following the latest Public Health England and government guidance on safe working and social distancing, including equipping all our staff and trades with hand gel or wipes and gloves or other PPE as required. We also need you to:

Leave the room where we’re working, to give our teams space – or stay 2 metres away if not
Keep children and pets away from where we’re working
Leave all internal doors open to minimise contact with door handles
Open the windows in rooms where we’ll be working (where you can).

So that we don’t put you, our employees or contractors at risk, we’ll also check with you whether you have the virus, are self-isolating or have any symptoms, as this may affect the service we can provide.

Tell us if you have Coronavirus or are self-isolating

Let us know

Keep checking this page as we’ll update it if anything changes.Our minor repair video guides on this page may also help in some cases - there’s advice on things like topping up the pressure in your boiler, resetting a trip switch on your fuse box and testing your smoke alarm.

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FAQs

: The government’s guidance says that work like repairs and maintenance can continue in people’s homes, as long as the tradesperson is well and has no symptoms.

We’re also following Public Health England guidelines, including staying two metres away from any occupants, to make sure everyone is safe.

The same guidance also says that work shouldn’t be done in a household which is self-isolating or where someone’s being ‘shielded’ (because they’re older or more vulnerable) unless it’s to remedy a direct risk to the safety of the household, such as emergency plumbing or repairs.

Critical incidents
Here are the sorts of critical incidents and emergency repairs that we’ll still deal with:

No heating and no hot water
Smell of gas, carbon monoxide incident or symptoms of CO poisoning
No electric
Major water leak or major/minor roof repairs
Uncontrolled leak affecting more than one home
Flooding due to extreme weather
Fire at a home
Tree fall or vehicle hitting a property and resulting in structural damage to it
Reports of legionella
Asbestos exposure
Fire alarm fault leading to loss of fire protection
Door entry system failure preventing access to vulnerable residents
Lift breakdown (stairlift/passenger lift/through floor lifts)
Insecure property or security issue
Damp and mould
Sewage treatment plants and septic tank repairs
Roller shutter failure
No toilet facilities
Pest infestations

If we get a call about an emergency repair, we’ll check if you’re self-isolating or confirmed as having coronavirus.

If you’re not self-isolating and don’t have symptoms
We’ll come out and do whatever work’s needed to either complete the repair or make the issue safe – following Public Health England (PHE) and government advice.

If we need to do emergency work outside office hours (from 6pm to 8am on Monday to Thursdays and 6pm Friday until 8am Monday) and we can’t complete a repair, the next working day we’ll assess how urgent any follow on works are. We’ll either book them in or see if they can wait until a later date.

If you’re self-isolating or have symptoms
We’ll first try and solve the issue remotely.

If we can’t fix it that way, you don’t have symptoms and you’re happy for us to attend, we’ll come out while following social distancing and other PHE guidelines.

If you do have symptoms, we’ll discuss with you what other options there may be.
: Government guidance says that work shouldn’t be done in a household which is self-isolating or where someone’s being ‘shielded’ (because they’re older or more vulnerable) unless it’s to remedy a direct risk to the safety of the household.

Safety work

To comply with health and safety regulations, the government says we should still carry out the following works to remedy any direct risk to the safety of households, even if they’re self-isolating or shielding:

Landlord gas safety checks – we are still legally required to carry these out within a certain period, even under the current guidelines
Fire risk assessments and high priority works
Planned fire alarm testing and maintenance
Planned emergency lighting testing and maintenance
Bin store/rubbish/flytipping clearance where there’s a health and safety risk
Lift maintenance inspections
Any other potential significant health and safety hazards (for example, unsafe electrics)

Repairs

Other work can also be done in people’s homes, as long as the tradesperson is well and has no symptoms. This means that we’ve now contacted residents to rebook cancelled repairs and are able to take calls if you have a new routine repair to report.

We’re also following Public Health England guidelines, including staying two metres away from any occupants, to make sure everyone is safe.

Other work

Grounds maintenance visits have fully resumed and other maintenance of communal areas is still continuing. We’re also working on empty homes to get these ready for residents now that lettings have resumed.
: We’re continuing to work on empty homes so that we can get these ready for residents who may need to move in an emergency (such as after a fire or because someone is homeless and needs to self-isolate) but also because some lettings have started to resume from late May.

We’ve issued instructions to our teams on how to do this safely and will only have two people at a property at any time. Please keep your distance from them if they’re working in your neighbourhood so that we can keep everyone safe.
: Yes, while services are still being delivered, you’ll still need to pay your service charge.

We’ll keep reviewing our services and whether they’re being completed. If some need to stop completely, we’ll calculate refunds for missed services at the end of the year. For services which continue but on a reduced basis, we’ll assess any differences in the cost of these services and make an adjustment to your charges for next year - as we already do.

If you’re worried about affording your payments, we’re here to help. Please contact us on 0300 5000 926 and speak to our Income team, who can also put you in touch with our other specialist teams. You still need to keep paying your rent if you can but we may be able to be flexible about your payments and can also advise about sick pay, the new benefits you may be eligible for and even other opportunities if you’re looking for work.
: Our main priority is to make sure that we keep our employees, contractors and residents safe, so we’re following guidance from Public Health England and government on which services we can continue and how these can be carried out safely.
Our contractors are still carrying out communal area cleaning, while following government advice about social distancing. They may see some staff shortages because of the current situation so you may find your clean doesn’t happen on the day you’d normally expect, but it will still take place. Staff are working hard to minimise any delays and make sure they keep to the necessary standards across our properties.

At priority sites (for example, housing for older people schemes) we’re completing extra cleaning and sanitising of communal areas. We won’t be passing on to residents the costs for additional cleaning that needs to be done specifically due to coronavirus.

Grounds maintenance visits have fully resumed and other maintenance of communal areas, including visits for health and safety checks, is also still continuing.
: We know people take pride in where they live but we have contracts in place and the necessary work is being completed with communal cleaning continuing and grounds maintenance fully resumed. So we wouldn’t look to provide a refund for services you’re carrying out yourself.
: Please contact us on 0300 5000 926 to speak with a contact advisor. If they aren’t able to help you, they’ll redirect your query to your housing officer or property manager.

Tell us if you have coronavirus, show symptoms or are self isolating

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