Maintenance and repairs

This page provides information about raising and dealing with housing repairs, and your rights as a tenant.

• Report a housing repair
• Our repair responsibilities
• Emergency repairs
• Accessing your property
• Right to repair

Repairs handbook

Report a housing repair

Request a housing repair appointment by contacting us on 0800 318 296 or 0118 937 3757 between 9am and 5pm.

Our repair responsibilities

We are responsible for:

• the structure and outside of the building (this does not include the garden)
• kitchen and bathroom fixtures
• electrical wiring, gas and water pipes, and water heating equipment
• any communal areas in your home

Emergency repairs

If a repair is very urgent and causing danger to health and safety or security, you can call the emergency repairs team:

• Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm: 0800 318 296 (freephone)
• Out-of-hours: 0118 937 3737

What is an emergency repair?

Emergency repairs are for situations where there is an immediate risk to your safety, your home or your security.

When you report an emergency, we will aim to attend as quickly as possible—usually the same day—to make things safe. This might be a temporary fix, and we may need to return later during normal working hours to complete a full repair.

We treat the following as emergency repairs:

• No electricity in your home, or no communal lighting (only if the whole building is affected)
• Dangerous electrical issues
• Severe or uncontrollable water leaks, for example from ceilings, toilets, or pipes
• Your only toilet is not flushing
• No heating or hot water – not an emergency during May and October unless exceptional circumstances
• You can smell gas – please visit our Gas Safety page for urgent advice
• Your carbon monoxide (CO) alarm is sounding
• Blocked drains causing flooding
• Serious roof leaks or water getting in, where it cannot be contained and is causing damage
• Your home is not secure, for example a broken external door or an accessible ground floor window
• You cannot open your only external door to get in or out of your home

For anything that isn’t an emergency, please report it through your Housing Online account so we can arrange a repair during normal working hours.

Accessing your property

We’ll need access to your property in order to carry out a repair. Persistent failure to grant access to your property may result in forced entry and you will incur a charge. It is important that you prepare for a repair appointment, ensuring we can gain access to the location of the repair and, if necessary, protect any furniture or floor coverings as required.

This short video demonstrates the importance of being able to access your property for repair work, and advises how best to prepare.

Watch time: 2 min

Right to repair

Secure tenants are eligible to have certain repairs carried out within a specific amount of time. Your tenant’s handbook outlines the repairs. You can also read about our Data Privacy Notice for Housing Building Maintenance Functions. You have a say in who conducts the work and could claim compensation if it is not completed on time.