Repairs and Maintenance in Your Home

The following pages will provide all the information you need to know about repairs to your home, including:

• Information about our repairs and maintenance service
• How to report a repair
• How quickly your repair will be completed.
• What’s our responsibility and what’s yours
• Information about the equipment in your home 

How to Report a Repair

If we are responsible for carrying out a repair, you need to let us know that there is a problem as soon as possible, to avoid it getting any worse. You can report a repair on either of the following ways:

• By calling our Customer Service Team on 01202 410 500
• By emailing us at repairs@bcha.org.uk

If your repair is an emergency outside of core hours (Monday - Friday, 8am - 5pm), you must report it by calling the same number (01202 410 500). 

Please note, text messages and emails are only dealt with during office hours, Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm.

Once you have reported the repair, we will arrange for a member of the Repairs Team to attend your home. Please do not arrange for your own contractors to do any repairs without contacting us to try and resolve the problem first.

Step 1 - Before Reporting the Repair

Please check the information in the following pages to see whether the repair is your responsibility or ours. If the repair is our responsibility, please let us know what the problem is and where it is.

Step 2 - What Do We Need to Know?

• Your name, address and a contact number
• Details about the repair
• If the repair relates to a washing machine, fridge or an oven, it would be useful to let us know the make and model if you have the information available to you.

Step 3 - Your Appointment

• The appointment slots we can offer you are Monday to Friday: an am appointment (8am to 12 noon), a pm appointment (12 noon to 5pm) a non-school run appointment (10am to 2pm) or a first appointment. Please let us know what you would prefer.
• We sometimes use subcontractors to complete your repair work to ensure you get a timely and efficient service. We'll let you know if a subcontractor is set to visit you.

Step 4 - On the Day

If you are not able to stay at home during the day of your appointment, please arrange for someone to be there, such as a friend or relative who is over the age of 18. If you are unable to organise this, please let us know.

If we come to do the repair and you are out, a card will be left asking you to arrange another appointment. If we do not hear from you, we will assume that the repair is no longer required.  

All BCHA Home operatives and subcontractors have ID cards. Please ask to see these before letting anyone into your home.

Step 5 - Repair Complete

Once your repair has been completed, an independent company may call you to see whether you are happy with the service you received.

BCHA’s Promise to You

How Quickly Repairs are Completed

When you call to report your repair, we will ask you a few questions, to determine the urgency of your repair and the timeframe in which it will be completed. We have three categories of repairs: Emergency, Urgent or Routine.

Emergency Repairs - 24 Hours

If your repair problem is likely to cause harm to you or damage to your home, we will treat your repair as an emergency.

Emergency Repairs Include:

• Burst or frozen water pipes.
• Loss of water – please check with your supplier.
• Loss of electric – Contact National Grid as 1st port of call to ascertain a power cut (Call 105).
• Loss of gas/gas leaks – please call our main line which out of hours will divert to a dedicated out of hours office team on 01202 410 500.
• Serious electrical faults such as no light or power - please check with your supplier before calling us.
• If you are locked out or have lost your keys (you may be charged for this).
• The collapse of external or internal structural parts of the building.
• Faulty external doors and windows which mean the property is insecure.
• Blocked drains or toilet (when there is no other toilet available).
• No heating or hot water.
• Serious leaking from the roof.

Urgent Repairs - 5 Days

We will schedule an urgent repair within 5 working days of you notifying us.

Urgent Repairs Include:

• Failure of an individual light in the communal areas.
• Minor electrical faults (which are significant but not life threatening) e.g. single socket/light not working.
• Minor plumbing faults, including leaks from the waste pipes of the toilet, sink and bath.
• Heating failure (which is significant but will not affect your health).
• Blocked sinks.
• Glazing- where there is no risk to your security.
• Minor roof leaks.
• The toilet is not flushing.
• Loose sanitary fittings to bath, sinks and toilet pans.
• Extractor fan problems.
• Faults with hard wired electrical doorbell or entry phone.

Routine Repairs - 21 Days

Routine repairs will usually be completed within 21 working days of you reporting them.

Routine Repairs Include:

• Damage to property.
• Plastering repairs.
• Broken seals around baths, basins and sinks (except where causing significant damage).
• Damage to window seals, handles, locks etc (where there is no risk to safety).
• Carpentry repairs to rotten timber, such as floors, skirting, door linings, doors.
• Ceramic tiling.
• Kitchen unit repairs.

Routine Repairs Continued:

• Kitchen unit repairs.
• Fences, gates, and boundary wall repairs.
• Repairing and cleaning out gutters and downpipes.
• Damp and mould.

Post Inspections

Following the completion of a repair, you may be contacted by a member of our team about a post inspection.

These inspections are undertaken to ensure that your repair has been carried out to the required standard, offering value for money and to ensure that we have correctly followed our procedures.