Maintenance

Your responsibility

• Maintain your garden, shed, decking and outbuildings
• Weed paths, paving and driveways
• Maintain a good level of repair of any conservatories and lean-tos you have installed or that have been gifted to you

Our responsibility

• Attend to the structure of your home including the roof, outside walls, doors, windows and windowsills
• Repair the roof, chimney, flue, guttering, down pipes and drains
• Repair unsafe garden walls and brick sheds, and fences (except where they are the neighbouring property’s responsibility)
• Paving, paths, and steps
• Garage structure, roof and garage doors
• Conservatories that are attached to your home, but only where certain conditions are met

Your responsibility

• Repair any appliances and fittings that you have installed or that have been gifted to you, including white goods, gas cooker, washing machine, carpets, furniture etc.
• Maintain internal decoration (except where we are painting to cover an area affected by a leak etc)
• Repair any small cracks in plaster or woodwork
• Replace internal and external light bulbs including security lighting, fuses (unless they are in the communal area, or you have above average height ceilings)
• Replace batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
• Install additional locks or replacing keys and changing locks, if you are locked out. In an emergency or where your home is not secure, we may carry out these works and recharge the costs to you
• Lubricate door/window locks and hinges
• Replace or maintain security features such as spyholes and door chains
• Ease and adjust internal doors having had your own floor coverings laid to bedrooms, hallways and living rooms
• Maintain floor coverings (including carpets, lino, tiles, and laminate) except in the bathroom and kitchen
• Repair any items that have been damaged by you or your guests, except where these pose a risk to health and safety (including glazing). We may charge you for these repairs
• Provide and maintain curtains and blinds

Please note, we are not responsible for any improvements you have made unless agreed by us, and only if you have been through our improvements process with works authorised by us.

Important: Any repairs to gas installations such as cookers, ovens or gas fires should be carried out by a certified Gas Safe engineer. You should follow up on the Gas Safety engineer advice, to ensure your safety when such installations are at the property.

Our responsibility

• Structural damage to inside walls, floors ceilings, skirtings, and air vents
• Door frames, door hinges, letter boxes, window catches, sash cords and window frames
• Fixtures (including those that have been approved as home improvements)
• Handrails, banisters and stair steps
• Persistent issues with drainage and blockages, removal of wastewater, plumbing leaks to bathroom, kitchen or heating and hot water including to taps, pipework
• Fitting or repairing fire and carbon monoxide alarms, communal alarm systems and fire panels

Your responsibility

• Maintain kitchen furniture and electrical appliances (including cooker hoods) in all instances, even when they have been provided by us
• Keep the kitchen clean and in a good condition
• Address sink waste pipe blockages
• Replace sink plugs and chains
• Fix and replace cupboards and drawer handles
• Connect and repair your own appliances

Our responsibility

• Repair kitchen units, doors and frames
• Fix or replace kitchen sinks and taps
• Trip hazards in kitchen flooring
• Water leaks
• Wall tiling, seals, and splashbacks
• Air vents, extractor fans and pull cords
• Electrical sockets and isolator switches
• The cold-water supply, stop valve, and trap for the washing machine.

Your responsibility

• Keep the bathroom and WC clean and in a good condition
• Replace toilet seats (including lids and hinges), shower heads, hoses, and sink/bath plugs
• Provide, maintain and replace shower curtains
• Attend to sink/toilet blockages in the first instance. You should attempt to unblock these with drain unblockers/plunger, where appropriate
• Any bathroom locks that were installed by you
• Clean low-level mildew around windows, doors, grouting and bathroom ceilings

Our responsibility

• Showers (where provided by us), shower screens (not curtains), toilets, baths, wall tiles, splashbacks and basins
• Flooring (both tiled and vinyl) and wall tiles
• Extractor and humidity fans
• Maintain and replace internal locks and door handles installed by us
• Water leaks
• Toilet flushing mechanism
• Lighting fittings

Our responsibility

• Repair your heating system if it breaks down
• Repair radiators and storage heaters
• Repairs to gas installations such as boiler and pipework (not including appliances)
• Electrical repairs (not including electrical appliances)
• Water leaks from heating system
• Faulty plug sockets
• Faulty light switches and fittings
• Hard-wired doorbells
• Hard-wired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
• Electrical hazards

Your responsibility

We will provide your home with a heating system, which is safe and provides adequate heat. You are responsible for:

• Allowing access for a gas service at your property, if there is a gas supply to your home
• Bleeding radiators
• Painting radiators

Important: Any repairs to gas installations such as cookers, ovens or gas fires should be carried out by a certified Gas Safe engineer. You should follow up on the Gas Safety engineer advice, to ensure your safety when such installations are at the property.

Your responsibility

You are responsible for keeping the inside of your home clean and tidy and not to encourage pest infestation. It is your responsibility to conduct internal pest control of your home, ensuring your home is safe, healthy, and free from things that could cause serious harm.

If you find any evidence of mice, cockroaches, pharaoh ants, wasps or any other pests, please contact your local hardware store who should be able to give you advice on which products are best-suited to address the pest issue.

Our responsibility

We will provide pest control in communal areas and inside the property if the infestation is being experienced across multiple homes. Pests include rats, mice, cockroaches, squirrels, pigeons, wasps, fleas, bedbugs and pharaoh ants, which can carry and transmit serious diseases.

We are responsible for some communal repairs, as defined under the terms of individual lease and tenancies. For some properties, such as flats, repairs may be the responsibility of the property managing agents; these agents are typically responsible for entrances, halls, lifts, communal TV aerials, stairways, passageways, rubbish chutes, lighting, door entry systems, communal letter boxes, paving, paths and decking in communal areas or balconies. Specific responsibilities are defined in lease documentation.

Some communal repairs in the same scheme/group of properties might be collated to be completed together. In such cases, they may not be completed within the usual target timeframe. We will let you know if this is likely, and will provide a revised timescale for completion.

We will work with contractors to gain access to the building when planning to carry out identified repairs in the communal areas.

We also carry out some repairs to communal areas as part of its cyclical works programme, rather than as a responsive repair service.

If you would like to make any home alterations or improvements, you will need to get written permission from us before you start any work. Failure to gain consent from us is a breach of your tenancy or lease and could result in punitive action being taken. Please note, you are not permitted to carry out any alterations or improvements in communal areas.