Reactive maintenance

LANDLORD OBLIGATION

Repair service standards

It is accepted practice in the housing industry to ensure a certain level of response time based on the nature of a repair. If a repair exceeds this time, you may be liable for issuing compensation for a breach of the lease and/ or we may go ahead and get the repair done and charge you back. We work closely with our landlords to ensure this does not happen, but please keep the possibility in mind.

Please use these standards as a minimum:

  • Emergency Repairs

Any repairs required avoiding danger to health, risking to the safety of residents or serious damage to buildings or residents' belongings e.g. failed fire precautions, floods, hot water failure, broken window. Make safe or complete within 24 hours of defect being reported.

  • Priority 2 (Urgent Repairs)

Repairs to defects which materially affect the safety, comfort or convenience of residents must be completed within 7 working days of report of the defect.

  • Priority 3 (Non-urgent Repairs)

Reactive repairs not falling within the above categories. Completed within 28 days of reporting the defect.

Communication with students

Good communication around repairs is often overlooked. You may be frantically working to find a resolution to an issue in the background, but without good communication it can look like nothing is happening. We would always emphasise the importance of good communication.

Full managed properties If have a 'full managed' contract, reports from occupiers will come to us and we will communicate back to them. We will consult with you if there are likely to be any significant expenses, but will otherwise deal with any minor issues.

Part managed properties For part managed contracts, you will need to have your contact information in the house so that tenants can contact you directly with any maintenance issues. How you wish tenants to communicate with you is up to you- we recommend a range of approaches- but here are some aspects to consider:

    • Telephone A mobile number is definitely recommended. Reports by telephone allow you to ask pertinent questions and lessen the chance for misunderstandings.

    • Email This method is especially useful in that you probably won't mind getting an email at 3am! It also overcomes the shyness of some students that may otherwise be reluctant to report things.

    • Messenger services such as WhatsApp, Signal, etc Forming a group of the whole house on a service such as WhatsApp means that the whole household can be involved in any issues that affect them. It can lack the nuance of a phone call, though, so we'd caution against using them for anything complex.

Appointing competent contractors

If you are commissioning work to be done at a property, you will ultimately be legally responsible for ensuring the work is done by a competent person. It is therefore very important that you think carefully about who you allow to work on your property.

Gas works You can check that an engineer is registered on the Gas Safe Register online instantly by visiting https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/find-an-engineer/ . This is a minimum check that should be made ahead of permitting access to the property

Electrical works Contractors registered with NICEIC is strongly recommended. You can check a contractors is registered here: https://www.niceic.com/householder/find-a-contractor

Using a home repair plan service

There are some comprehensive maintenance services available that cover common issues for a monthly fee. Whilst these are very useful in general, be aware that their level of service may not be in keeping with our repair service standards. Please make sure you check this before entering into a contract to avoid the frustrating situation of having to pay for another in order to hit timescales.

Preparations and information to supply to a contractor ahead of work

Asbestos safety - If your property was built before 2000, you should supply anyone working on your property with key information about asbestos known to be present ahead of the work. If there are major works due to take place (e.g. removing walls, floors, ceilings, working in uninspected areas), you should commission an asbestos survey. You should also ask contractors whether they have undertaken training around asbestos awareness.

Access requirements - Tenants need to be given a decent amount of notice ahead of any visit (unless in a clear emergency). It is usually best to contact us to do this on your behalf- at least 24 hours is required, preferably more.

When you or a contractor visit the property, ensure you knock clearly twice before using a key to access. If using a key, make sure you call out when you enter. This approach not only shows respect, but will help avoid awkward situations.

If you have any issue with a tenant refusing access, please do not enter regardless. Refer the matter to us to resolve.

Other safety requirements - Remember that if you are appointing a contractor to do work for you, it remains your responsibility to ensure they do the work properly and safely. This means ensuring that they are competent to do the work, they will do it in a safe way and checking once the work is completed. You may therefore need to check that a contractor is qualified/ certified, obtain references and/ or ask them for a satisfactory risk assessment and method statement (known as RAMS) before undertaking the work.