REPAIR RESPONSE TIMES

The Association has split repairs into five categories depending on the seriousness of each repair. The main categories are explained below:

Category of Repair	Timescale
Emergency	Make safe or complete within 4 hours
Urgent	Complete within 3 working days
Non-Emergency	First appointment within 3 working days and completion within 7 working days if a follow on appointment is required
Extended repairs where multiple trades and/or appointments are required	15 working days
Right To Repair	1,3 or 7 working days (see Right to Repair section for more info)

Emergency Repairs

An emergency is defined as something which could not have been foreseen and which could cause danger to health, residents’ safety or serious damage and destruction to property.

The types of work includes:

• Severe roof leaks

• Burst pipes and flooding

• Blocked drains resulting back surge of waste into the house

• Blockage of your only toilet

• Leak from water or heating pipe, tank or cistern

• Complete loss of electrical power or lighting

• Loss of gas

• Loss of heating in cold weather where there is no other form of heating available

• Electrical fault which may endanger a building or resident

• Security of the property following break-in or forced entry

• Insecure window that could pose a risk of health and safety to occupants or risk of break-in

• Storm damage causing danger to tenants or members of the public

Where a repair is classified as an emergency, you must ensure you provide access to your home during the response period. Access may be forced if serious damage to property is likely to occur or health and safety is compromised.

Urgent Repairs

These are repairs, which should be attended to and resolved promptly in order to prevent an emergency situation of severe discomfort to the tenant.

Examples include:

• Parts required following a no heat/no hot water

• Partial heating and/or hot water

• Partial loss of electrical power or light

• Loose or detached banister or handrail

• Loss of TV reception

• Door entry phone not working

Non Emergency Repairs

These are repairs, which may materially affect the comfort or convenience of the tenant.

Examples include:

Leaking tap
Repair to internal doors
Repairs to kitchen units and worktops
Loss or partial loss of space or water heating
Toilet blocked or not flushing and there is another toilet in the house
Leaking roof
Insecure external window, door or lock where the problem is less serious than in the emergency category
Extractor fan not working in a kitchen or bathroom
Broken fence or paving

Extended Repairs

Sometimes a routine repair or follow on work from an emergency will take longer than normal e.g. parts difficult to obtain, multi trades involved to carry out repairs. It is likely that only a small number of such repairs will arise over the year. If a repair falls into this category then we will advise you accordingly.

Repair Inspections – complete within 3 working days

If your repair requires inspection we will let you know and a member of staff will call out as quickly as possible. We also try to inspect a proportion of all repairs after they are completed to ensure our contractors are reaching the high standards we expect.

Use of Discretion

The Association recognises the individual needs of tenants. Where a tenant is significantly more inconvenienced by a repair than an average tenant as a result of their age, health, disability or any other factor, consideration can be given to reclassifying the repair in order to reduce the completion time.

Re-charge Repairs

This is when we carry out a repair and then charge you the cost of the repair. This would normally happen in the following circumstances:

• When we have carried out a repair as a result of your, or a member of your household’s or any visitor’s neglect, misuse or vandalism or

• When you ask us to carry out work that you are responsible for or

• If you use the emergency call out system and did not need to

• If we cannot get into your home on three occasions to carry out a repair

• If we need to force access to complete your annual gas service

If possible we will tell you the cost of a repair in advance. When we have finished the repair we will write to you confirming the cost and send you a copy of the contractor’s invoice.

We will expect you to pay the cost of the repair in full on receipt of our invoice or to arrange a reasonable payment plan to pay off the debt over a short period of time.