Reporting Repairs

Please let us know if your home needs a repair that you think the Society (your landlord) is responsible for.  The checklist below, gives some general guidance about who is responsible for what – but if you are not sure, please just ask us.  It is important to report any maintenance and repair needs promptly, to help prevent problems getting any worse or causing damage to your home or belongings.  Indoor decorating, cleaning, gardening and pest control are all your responsibility as a householder.  If you want to make any changes to your home or garden, whether as a DIY project or by paying someone to carry out works for you, you must ask for our written permission first – this helps ensure your safety, and gives the Society the opportunity to offer you advice and guidance. We distribute written guidance to all Society homes about Repairs Reporting, so please keep your copy safe and easy to refer to when you need it. There is also more information set out below.

Repairs and Covid-19: Please continue to report repair needs to the Society during Covid-19 including lockdown periods.  We will try to provide normal service if we can.   If Government restrictions are in place, contractor visits to your home may still be possible but our focus will be on prioritising urgent/safety repairs, and working in a Covid-secure way.  Please tell us if you have concerns about Covid-19.  Staff and contractors are not allowed to visit the Society’s homes if they are ill or have a positive Covid-19 test, and appropriate hygiene and PPE will be used.  You will be asked to confirm whether anyone in your household is ill or isolating, so that repairs and inspections can be planned in the right way, or postponed if appropriate.

If you spot a repair need out of hours (overnight, at weekends, holiday periods etc) you should only use the Emergency direct phone numbers if the problem is truly an emergency and cannot wait until the next working day because of the risk of injury or severe damage.  While waiting, take action to prevent the problem getting worse or causing damage, or to help you get by, for instance:

  • Turn off a tap, stopcock (water supply), or switch as appropriate.  If an appliance you own has tripped the electrics, leave the appliance turned off and restore the rest of the power to your home by using the switches on the consumer unit (fuseboard) which is designed for this purpose.

  • Use buckets or cloths to catch or soak up leaking water.

  • Use buckets of water to flush the toilet.

Suspected gas or carbon monoxide leaks must always be reported immediately using the public Gas Emergency Number 0800 111 999.

What to do if you need...

An emergency repair

The following numbers are for emergencies only. You may receive a bill to pay if you use call-out numbers for repairs that are not emergencies. Please ask yourself: CAN THIS WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT WORKING DAY?  The answer is usually Yes, it can wait.

Plumbing/General Building: Urgent major water leaks or failures only, ALSO
Total Electrical Power Failure: Please also check your consumer unit “fuse box”, or see whether there is a power cut affecting your neighbours too.
WESSEX RESPONSE/ELECTRICAL 01747 852878

Total heating or hot water failure (boilers and heating systems):
GASCARE 02380 516611 or 0330 999 3456
You should usually wait until the next working day to report problems with heating or hot water, unless you feel it is dangerous to wait.  If you have other forms of heating or hot water (eg: immersion), you can use these in the meantime.

True emergencies only occur when the matter is so serious that it needs to be attended to before the start of the next working day. An emergency is a danger to life or limb, a serious and immediate risk to health, or where there is likelihood of significant damage to the property (eg: a water leak causing a ceiling to collapse).

A routine or urgent repair

If it is an Emergency, please refer to the "Emergency Repair" section of this web page.

For other repairs which are urgent or routine, if you can, please use our online website Request a Repair form to report repair needs (but not emergencies).  You can find a Request a Repair form on this web page, and on other pages of our website. Here is a list of the ways you can report routine and urgent (but not emergency) repairs to the Society.

  1. Use our online Request a Repair forms which you can find on this website, giving your name, address, contact phone and a brief description of the problem;
    OR
  2. Emailing to [email protected] giving your name, address, contact phone and a brief description of the problem;
    OR
  3. (Telephone the main WHS number to speak to our Property Manager – 01962 841545). Leave a clear message if necessary, particularly if you are calling out of hours.

Do NOT contact our contractors directly unless it is an emergency.

Messages left out of hours will be picked up the next working day and prioritised as appropriate by staff at the Society (not on duty 24 hours a day).  Before leaving us a message, please listen carefully to our answerphone message, as these may include instructions and guidance which will help you.

Advice on repairs

If you are not sure whether you should report a repair need to the Society or not, please just ask us. We are always happy to discuss your concerns or questions. The best way to contact us for this is to use [email protected] for email, or by speaking with our Property Manager on 01962 841545.

The Society arranges and pays for a number of different regular checks and reviews of your home, to make sure it stays safe and to help us plan for major projects like replacing windows or meeting the UK’s national targets for zero carbon. These checks include: annual gas safety checks and servicing, electrical checks and updates approximately every 5 years, asbestos monitoring and testing at some properties, and general condition surveys every few years. If you receive contact from somebody who wants to visit your home for an inspection and you are not sure whether it has been authorised by the Society, you are always very welcome to contact us to check.

Make a change to your home

It is very important that you ask for the Society’s written permission before you make any changes to your home or garden. This is one of the requirements of your tenancy agreement (your contract) that you signed when you moved in. The reason for this is so that we can help you ensure that all safety standards and legal requirements will be properly met. Sometimes you will also need local authority planning consent, or inspection by a Building Regulations inspector for the local authority, and we can advise you about that. Your proposed work might have an impact on gas, electricity or water services at your home, or may be in an area where there is known to be stable asbestos-containing materials which should not be disturbed. You must always discuss your plans with us before starting work, and we will confirm or decline permission in writing.

These requirements remain the same during Covid-19 lockdown periods, so if you are thinking of a lockdown project, please speak to us about it first.

Request a Repair

Who’s Responsible for Repairs?

Repair Details Us You
Alarms Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms (and heat alarms, if fitted).
Baths & basins
Bathroom fixtures & fittings Toilet seats, bathroom cabinets, mirrors, shower curtains, unheated towel rails, toilet roll holders, plugs and chains (see also Showers)
Battery replacements In some types of alarms and thermostats.  Please ask us if you are not sure.
Blocked toilet, bath/basin/sink plughole traps Baths, basins & toilets.  Unblocking/clearing traps is usually you. Please take care about what goes down plugholes and what is flushed down the toilet.
Boilers Annual servicing and safety check, and breakdown
Boiler pressure (combi boilers) Topping up pressure on combi boilers; please ask us for advice if you are unsure what to do
Carpentry/woodwork Skirting boards, door frames, architrave, floor boards.  You should not make changes to these items without seeking written permission from us first.
Communial areas Including lighting, doors, door locks, door entry phones, bin stores, recycling areas, cleaning and grounds maintenance
Decoration External
Decoration Internal - please keep a good standard of decorating to help protect your home
Doors Broken, worn, (other than wilful damage) hinge, latch, handle, frame and door (but planing of doors to accommodate thick carpets would be for you to do after seeking written permission from us).
Door furniture Locking mechanisms, handles, letterboxes will usually be Society responsibility (unless damage is due to negligence in use).  Please seek our written permission if you want to change any door handles for decorative purposes.  Wireless doorbells/monitors are your responsibility (if you choose to have them).
Drains Outside, blocked or damaged
Electrical appliances Such as cookers, fridges, washing machines and dishwashers
Fences & gates
Fixtures & fittings Such as coat hooks, curtains and curtain rails
Floor boards
Floor covering Including adapting doors to accommodate carpets (please seek our written permission first).  Carpets are for you to provide (Society provides floor covering for kitchen, rear lobby and bathroom).
Front door lock Lost keys and/or replacement door locks due to key loss or being locked out.  Cost of locksmith if you are locked out.
Garden to individual home Including turf, repair or replacement of dustbins/wheelie bins and recycling refuse areas.  Please keep your garden tidy and well-maintained, to help prevent pests or damage to your home.
Gutters and downpipes Report if you see them loose, overflowing, blocked or damaged.
Heating Including solar, thermal or PV panels
Repair Details Us You
Hot water heaters Including immersion heaters
Infestations By ants, wasps, bees, cockroaches, mice, rats or bedbugs
Kitchen units Including worktops.  Please do not remove or change kitchen units or worktops without seeking our permission in writing first, in the usual way.
Light fittings Light bulbs, fuses and flourescent tubes
Locks Including loss of keys and repairs to forced entry if you get locked out
Other blockages Foul waste, gulleys, rainwater downpipes; usually Society responsibility but you should also take normal reasonable care in use, and avoid causing obstruction.
Paths Paths from your front and rear doors to your boundary gates. Including steps, footpaths and ramps
Patios Garden features like patios are generally your responsibility to maintain.  Please ask permission in advance if you want to install one.
Pilot lights Including resetting any heating controls
Plastering
Plumbing repairs & leaks
Porch canopies
Showers You should do your own shower-head descaling, and replace broken, kinked or split hoses.  Please ask us if you need advice.  Brackets and riser rails usually Society responsibility.
Sink units
Stairs
Switches
Sockets
Taps Kitchen and bathroom taps and shower mixers
Telephone points
Toilet Seats
TV aerial points For houses only
Wall tiling Normally a Society responsibility as part of kitchen and bathroom installations
Water leaks Including sealant around sinks and baths
Windows Including cills, catches and frames.  You should lubricate hinges and catches yourself, and keep these clean.
Window and door glass Broken glass in windows and doors will normally be your responsiblity to pay for, but please advise us about breakages so that we can advise and assist with arrangement of repair or replacement.  You can make safe by temporary boarding up as production of new glazing units often takes several days or more.
This is just a general guide and does not replace your tenancy agreement. Please ask us if you are not sure who is responsible for the repair.

Leave Feedback

Recently had maintenance work completed on your property? We would love to hear from you one how it went. Let us know your thoughts on the work by filling out our contractor feedback form.

Let us know your thoughts on the work by completing the feedback section of the Tenant Order Summary you were given.

Submit a Repair Request

Do you have a maintenance issue you wish to submit? Use the repair request form to submit details of your issue so we can make sure the right person is sent to deal with the problem.

Send Request