|
Sandwell Homes Ltd
Dartmouth House
Sandwell Road
West Bromwich
B70 8TQ
Tel: 0121 569 6000
|
|
 |
Repairs
When Will My Repair Be Done?
Repair Categories
Sandwell Homes Repairs and Maintenance Directorate categorises all repair jobs into one of three areas:
- Emergency
- Urgent
- Non-urgent
Emergency Repairs (Priority 0)
We aim to respond to emergency repairs and complete or make safe within 24 hours. An emergency is where action is required by Sandwell Homes to remove a danger to the property, its occupants or visitors, or risk to the health of someone.
The following would be classed as emergency repair items:
- Total loss of electric power
- Unsafe lighting socket or electrical fitting
- Total loss of water supply
- Total or partial loss of gas supply
- Blocked flue to open fire or boiler
- Total or partial loss of heating
- Blocked or leaking foul drain or soil stack
- Toilet not flushing (when there is no other toilet at the dwelling)
- Insecure external window, door or lock
- Total loss of lighting
- Partial loss of power but only when it is a danger to health and safety, for example power loss effects essential equipment such as a stair lift or a nebuliser
- Internal leaking or burst pipes (only when the tenant cannot control the leak and there is a danger to the property and/or belongings)
- Burst tanks or cylinders
- Locked out (may be chargeable)
- Blocked WCs
- Blocked sink, bath or wash hand basin (in multi-storey blocks only)
- Blocked refuse chutes in multi-storey blocks
- No central heating (between 31st October – 1st May)
- Loss of water heating (between 31st October – 1st May)
- Gale, fire, flood or explosion damage
Should you have any queries over your own particular repair you should contact your repairs centre during office hours for further information.
Emergency repairs out of office hours.
Sandwell Homes provides an emergency call out service, which deals with emergency repairs outside normal working hours, operating from 8:00 pm and 8:00am, Monday to Friday and 24 hours per day on weekends and Bank holidays.
If you have an emergency repair when our offices are closed you can contact us FREE on 0800 844 112.
* Any misuse of the emergency call out service will result in a charge to the occupier for the visit made.
The emergency call out service only deals with emergencies and does not respond to repairs which can be safely left until the following day. The teams usually only do temporary repairs or carry out ‘make safe’ work.
Permanent repairs are left for normal working hours so please do not expect the job to be fully completed during these hours.
Urgent Repairs (Priority 1)
We will respond to urgent repairs within 3 days.
The following would be classed as an urgent repair:
- Partial loss of electric power
- Partial loss of water
- Blocked sink, bath or wash hand basin (except in multi-storey blocks)
- Taps which cannot be turned
- Rotten timber flooring or stair tread
- Door intercoms not working
- Extractor fans in kitchens or bathrooms (only when no window in the room is present)
- Glass replacement (where security is affected)
- Leaking pipe work or waste pipes
- Loss of water heating (between 30th April – 1st November)
- Leaking roofs
Non-urgent Repairs (Priority 7)
We will respond to small non-urgent repairs within 25 days. The following would be classed as non-urgent work repair:
- Floorboards (small repairs)
- Internal door repairs (not replacement)
- Air vents / bricks
- Small plastering repairs (plaster patch)
Zoned Maintenance (Priority 9)
Sandwell Homes is working towards carrying out non-urgent repairs on a zoned maintenance or cyclical basis. This will allow us to package work together by areas, enabling work to be planned more easily at reduced costs and therefore more repairs can be undertaken. We will respond to zoned repair work within 6-12 weeks. The following would be classed as Zoned maintenance repairs:
- Privacy fencing
- Renewal of Baths
- Renewal of guttering and downpipes
- Renewal of baths or complete bathroom suites
- Renewal of front or rear doors and/or frames
- Plastering
Planned/Cyclical Maintenance (Priority 9)
This is when work is carried out periodically to prolong the life of the building component and avoid either expensive repairs or a complete breakdown. The following would be classed as Cyclical Repairs
- Gas Servicing (annually)
- Electrical equipment testing - hard wired smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, extractor fans, ventilation or heat recovery units etc (annually)
- PVCu window maintenance and domestic water installation checks (every 5 years)
- External painting (every 5 years)
- Painting to communal entrances and landings - low rise flatted accommodation (every 5 years)
Improvement Programs
Our improvement programmes see homes improved in order to reduce the amount of day-to-day repairs required and to achieve the Government’s “Decent Homes Standard”. This is one of the most cost effective ways of keeping properties in a good state of repair. Sometimes we will delay day-to-day repairs in certain areas due to forthcoming improvement programmes. If this is the case, we will keep you informed. Whenever Improvement programmes are due to take place, we will send out the details beforehand.
Decent Homes Standard
The “Decent Homes Standard” is a Government target to ensure that all council housing stock meets decent standards by 2010. To find out more about the Decent Homes Standard please click here.
|
|
|