Repairs

An emergency is a repair that threatens your health, safety, or security or could cause significant damage to your home including flooding or total loss of electricity or water.

Other examples of emergency repairs are:

• Escape of gas or fumes
• Electrical fittings in contact with water
• Live or bare electric wiring
• Sewage overflowing into the home
• Outside doors that need to be secured
• Burst storage tanks, cylinders, or pipes
• Failure of all lights or all power
• Failure of heating systems in severe weather and where no alternative is available
• Failure of all communal lighting

 

Please always report emergencies by phone - in the event of an emergency please call 020 7780 3070, lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

We are responsible for keeping in repair the structure and exterior of a customer’s home and the building in which it is situated.

This includes:

• Exterior property including foundations, walls, doors, windows, pipes, drains, means of access, and garages

• Internal property and structure including walls, skirting boards, floors, ceiling, doors, and heated towel rails

• Pests where the reported pests are rats, pigeons, pharaoh ants, cockroaches or woodworm infestations.

• Exterior property including foundations, roofs, gutters, pipes

• Windows (but not usually the glass in them if it is damaged by a resident or a member of the household)

• Pathways, steps, or other means of access

• Drains (but not waste pipes that are blocked through use by residents)

• Paths, fencing, and steps

• Internal walls, skirting, floors, ceilings, and plasterwork (excluding minor cracks, painting, and decorating)

• Gas, electrical, water, and waste disposal services, including basins, sinks, baths, toilets, flushing cisterns, and overflows

• Internal fire doors

• Kitchen and bathroom doors and frames, if there is a risk to health and safety

• Pests where the reported pests are rats, pigeons, pharaoh ants, cockroaches or woodworm infestations

Alongside the parts of your home that we maintain, you have responsibilities to keep your home in a good condition too. We expect our tenants to:

• Keep both the inside and outside of their home, gardens, and communal areas clean and in good condition.

• Undertake minor repairs and avoid doing anything which may result in blockages to pipes and drains

• Take responsibility for pest control, including mice, wasp and bees nests, bed bugs, and disinfestation.

• Make lifestyle changes to resolve instances of condensation and mould. Where condensation is the likely cause of any reported dampness, THCH will advise tenants of the action they need to take to deal with the problem and prevent further incidences.

• To comply with the residents' obligations in regards to fire safety.

 

Tenants are responsible for the following repairs and maintenance:

Interior and exterior of a property Doors

• Door locks and keys (we will only replace front door locks if the damage is the result of a crime, crime reference number must be provided)

• Fitting extra locks, door handles, and/or catches

• House numbers, letter plates letterboxes unless they are in an internal communal area

• Draught exclusion, provided doors/windows fit reasonably

• Adapting doors to accommodate carpets

 

Interior fittings

• Cupboard and wardrobe catches, hinges, and doors

• Minor repairs to kitchen units, unit doors, hinges, drawers, and runners

• Internal painting and decorating and window glass

• Shelving, coat, and hat rails

• Plumbing in washing machines or dishwashers

• Maintenance of resident installed smoke detectors

   

Bathroom & Kitchen

• Any wall tiling above the first three rows, including fire surrounds, grouting and mastic

• Showerheads, bath and basin plugs, chains, and handles

• Renewal of sealant around the bath, wash hand basin, kitchen sink, and showers

• Cleaning blockages and descaling of toilets, sinks, baths, and showers

   

Property maintenance

• Clothes lines, posts, tidy-dryers, and rotary dryers

• Provision/replacement of individual dustbins

 

General fixtures and fittings

• Replace or repair any items (such as white goods, gas, or electrical appliances) gifted to the tenant

• Cleaning of communal parts, except where specified as part of a service charge

• Condensation and mould

 

Heating

• Maintenance of any fixtures and appliances not fitted by THCH

• Any tenant’s fittings/appliances e.g. gas cooker, washing machine

• Bleeding radiators

• Fitting TV aerials (unless communal)

• Plugs, lamps, and tenant’s own light fittings

• Changing light bulbs tubes and fuses, unless sealed LED lights.

   

Garden/exterior

• Gates, hinges, and latches to gates serving individual dwellings

• Rubbish clearance as well as cleaning basements and front areas

• Tenants own fences and sheds

• Gardening at individual properties

 

If we have to carry out a repair that is your responsibility, we will pass on the cost to you. You can find out more about how we approach this in our Repairs recharges policy  

 

In an emergency

If your repair is an emergency, our contractor will be with you within 4 hours. There is no need to call more than once to report the emergency.

Once we have completed the ‘make safe’ repair, our contractor will contact you again within two working days to make a further appointment will be made to carry out a permanent repair, you do not need to call us for this to happen.

 

Other repairs

If your repair is not an emergency, an appointment will be made with you at a time and date that works for you. We aim to minimise the time between a request for a repair and its completion, though exact timescales will depend on the exact nature of the repair, availability of parts, and team schedules.

We expect residents to help in providing access to their property and to tell us if the appointment can’t be met for any reason.

We believe every resident has the right to privacy, dignity, independence, and choice. They must also be able to live free from abuse and feel safe in their home.

We aim to make sure that every resident gets equal benefit from our services – including people who are vulnerable. We also support residents to make sure they can maintain their tenancies.

People can be vulnerable for a number of reasons and there may be more than one vulnerable person in one household.

To find out more about how we support our vulnerable residents, view our Vulnerable residents policy

THCH has a legal responsibility to carry out certain checks on an annual basis to ensure our residents' safety, this includes gas safety checks and electrical safety checks in our properties.

We will write to you to let you know when an inspection is due and we will need to gain access to the property to carry out the inspection.

You must allow access to your property to carry out these checks as part of your tenancy agreement with us, failing to do so risks the safety of yourself and those around you and could be a contravention of your agreement with us.

You can find out more about our approach to Safety in your Home on our website.

 

When your home is damp, it can cause mould to grow on walls and furniture, or make timber windows rot. Damp can cause problems in your home and can be bad for your family’s health if left unchecked.

Damp can be caused by a leak or problem with the building or condensation, and there are a number of steps you can take to help reduce the build-up of moisture in your home.

Our Guide to damp and condensation explains the different types of damp and what you can do about them.

For more information send a message through your ‘MyHome’ account or email customerservices@thch.org.uk

Reporting a Repair

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