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Repair timescales

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When you report a repair to us, if it is our responsibility, we will assess the urgency of the situation and allocate a priority to your repair. We will attend more urgent repairs with a higher priority quicker.

Where we are not responding to an emergency repair, we always aim to agree an appointment that's convenient for you.

Emergency repairs

An emergency repair is something that poses an immediate risk to your health, safety or security. This is why it’s important we look at these jobs first.

Some examples of emergency repairs include:

  • Total loss of electricity, water or gas.

  • Partial loss of power, such as no lights or no drinking water.

  • A serious plumbing or gas leak.

  • A serious roof leak or major structural failure.

  • Your heating breaks down in winter (October - March) or a member of your household is elderly, disabled, chronically sick or you have children under the age of five.

  • If your heating breaks down in non-heating season (April - September), this will be logged as a routine repair and attended within 45 days.

  • You need to secure your home following an incident of fire, domestic violence, police activity or if the property becomes empty.

  • Any other repair that puts you or others around you in danger.

If your repair is an emergency:

  • If you are a Sanctuary customer - please call us on 0800 131 3348 as soon as possible.
  • If you are a Swan tenant - please call us on 0800 783 2768 as soon as possible.

 

Routine repairs

These are repairs that are not emergency repairs or causing a serious inconvenience, but that we still need to put something right.

Examples of issues that would be treated as a routine repair include:

  • Minor plumbing leaks.

  • Tap which cannot be fully turned off.

  • Brickwork.

  • Guttering repairs.

  • Repairs to light pendants and electrical fittings.

  • Minor carpentry repairs.

  • Minor fence repairs.

  • Failure of extractor fans.

Major and planned repairs

Some maintenance works might take longer, due to their complexity and cost. Where this is the case, we will discuss this with you and explain what we are doing to resolve the issues you are having. This may involve us completing temporary repairs whilst we plan for longer term improvements.

Sometimes we may group repairs together to create a programme of works. For example, if there are lots of properties on one estate that need new guttering, we may group this work together.

We may do this where there is no health and safety risk and the required work does not disrupt your quality of life.

This means we can minimise the disturbance for everyone and make the best use of the money we spend. If this happens, and we require access to your home to complete the work, we will work with you to agree a date for the work to be carried out.

Each year we also carry out an extensive programme of improvement works to our properties. This includes replacing things such as kitchens, bathrooms and windows. 

Report a repair