Repairs to council homes

How we have updated our repairs policy

When you report a repair issue, we will prioritise it based on the following criteria:

• Health and safety risk to individuals, or property, due to the fault.
• Vulnerability of the household. We may ask questions to determine the impact the fault will have on you and your household.

Repairs are prioritised as:

1. Emergency: attended to and made safe within 4 to 24 hours dependant on the risks identified, we do not make appointments for emergency repairs as we would expect you to wait in for our trade operative to arrive
2. Urgent: attended to within 5 working days
3. Routine: attended to within 28 working days
4. Repair inspections: attended to within 10 working days
5. Major works: attended to within 90 working days

Non-emergency repairs will be appointed in consultation with you, within the priority timescale.

Emergency repairs 

If there is an emergency, it is important you call us immediately. You can contact us at any time, 365 days a year.

Do not report emergency repairs online, call our contact centre on 020 8726 6101.

Emergency repairs are essential to prevent serious damage, ensure your safety, and minimise loss or property damage. Often called 'make safe' repairs, these temporary solutions address urgent issues until a permanent fix can be arranged.

Emergency repairs may include:

• complete loss of electricity, mains water or gas supply
• loss of heating and hot water (where there are no alternatives)
• burst plumbing or flood that cannot be stopped by turning off the water supply
• electrical fault caused by serious plumbing leak
• gas escape
• serious structural failures
• security of property or where a property is insecure
• broken glazing to windows
• blocked toilet where it is the only toilet in the property
• blocked drains or sewage overflowing into your home
• faulty communal door entry systems where access is required
• faulty lifts including stair lifts or through floor lifts
• mains smoke alarm or carbon monoxide (CO) alarm faulty
• serious roof leak where immediate damage is visibly being caused to inside or structure of the property

Reports of loss of heating and hot water within the heating season: 

• 1 October to 31 March, will be attended to within 24 hours
• 1 April to 30 September, will be attended to within 3 days

If you have a health condition needing hot water for regular bathing you will receive 24-hour emergency assistance, particularly if an electric shower is unavailable.

Urgent repairs

Any defect that is causing major and unsustainable discomfort, inconvenience, and nuisance, and is likely to lead to further deterioration if the problem persists.

Examples include:

• Blocked waste pipes or containable leak
• Blocked toilet (where there is another toilet)
• Partial loss of lighting
• Roof leaks where water leaking or dripping is present and causing staining to ceilings
• Partial heating or hot water failure
• Leaking boiler or radiators where the leak is containable
• Leak to sink or wash hand basin or bath where the leak is containable
• Problems with communal TV aerials

Repair inspection 

From time to time, it may be necessary for a surveyor to attend to carry out an inspection of the required repair. If further work is needed, it will be ordered, and an appointment will be scheduled with you.

After the survey, a confirmation form will be left with you outlining the necessary repairs and timeline. For complex repairs, an appointment may not be possible to arrange with you on the same day, but our planning team will follow this up with you.

Routine repairs

A repair that is not considered an emergency or urgent and does not meet the criteria for planned works (for example, not part of our planned investment programme or cyclical works programme) is classified as a routine repair, for example this could be:

• minor repairs to internal joinery, including kitchen units, window frames and catches, floorboards, floor tiles, skirting boards, doors, and banister rails
• repairs for partially blocked and defective gullies
• fixing dripping taps and showers
• repairs to faulty extractor fans
• small-scale plasterwork and plaster patching that do not pose any health and safety risks
• minor roof repairs, such as fixing broken or slipped tiles, that do not pose any health and safety risks
• repairs for faulty internal door latches, handles, and closers
• minor brickwork repairs

Major works

Major work projects typically involve specialised or custom-made items and may require several days to complete. They often encompass large-scale external works and can be grouped into smaller programs for economic reasons. Examples of such projects include:

• large-scale plastering affecting multiple surfaces or rooms
• partial re-roofing or replacement of roofline components
• partial or full replacement of fencing
• gutter clearing
• installation of new doors or windows
• driveway or large-scale paving works

Repairs and maintenance policy

Read our repairs and maintenance policy which sets out our approach to managing repairs and maintenance in the properties the council owns and manages.