Your housing repair responsibilities

You must look after your home in a reasonable and responsible way. You must report immediately, any repairs that need carrying out to your property that we are responsible for.

There are some types of repair that are your responsibility. These include:

  • Decorating the inside of the property (including minor plaster repairs)
  • Replacing broken glass
  • Accessing the property, and arranging a new set, if you have lost your keys
  • Replacing door catches and door handles inside the property (including cupboard handles)
  • Replacing or repairing coat hooks
  • Replacing loose or broken toilet seats
  • Replacing sink and bath plugs and unblocking sinks, baths and toilets
  • Replacing damaged or missing tiles to walls, cills, hearths or surrounds
  • Repairing or replacing domestic appliances including gas/electric appliances that belong to you and the safe connection to services using appropriately qualified contractors
  • Ensuring that any boiler range is supplied with water before firing and an adequate supply maintained
  • Dealing with gas leaks on appliances that belong to you
  • Resetting electrical trips
  • Replacing fuses to appliances
  • Replacing light bulbs
  • Replacing smoke detector batteries
  • Chimney sweeping
  • Dealing with phones and phone connections, TV aerial points and any other equipment which need connection points in your home excluding communal areas
  • Dealing with digital TV cables, internet connections and other technology connections points in your home excluding communal areas
  • Replacing dividing fences between properties
  • Maintenance of metal or Concrete washing line posts (except those in communal areas)
  • Any criminal or malicious damage caused to the property by visitors or guests of the tenant or by persons known to the tenant
  • Treating mould growth due to your failure to ventilate and heat
  • Maintaining garden areas; including mowing the lawn and keeping hedges and trees cut to a maintainable level and not encroaching onto a public footpath or neighbouring property.

You are also responsible for:

Managing condensation levels inside your property by properly ventilating and heating it. You should not dry wet clothes and possessions inside the property on or by radiators or heaters.

Where fitted you must use extractor fans and the trickle vents in your windows. They must not be blocked or covered. You should let us know immediately if any extractor fan fitted at the property is not working.

You must keep all grates, grids, drains and gullies clean and clear except gutters that catch water from the roof, which are our responsibility.

You must not do anything to block toilets and sinks. This includes flushing nappies, sanitary products and wet wipes of any sort down the toilet or pouring fat or food down the sink or toilet.

You are responsible for all pest control issues related to your property.

You, or anyone in your household must not do anything which may reduce the effectiveness of the fire doors in your home or in communal areas. This means that you must not drill or cut into the fire door or fit cat flaps, door chains, peepholes or new letterboxes into fire doors or use anything to wedge or prop open any fire doors in your home or in the communal areas.

Works you may be charged for

If you, or anyone in your household damages any items, you are responsible for repairing, renewing or replacing these items at your own cost even if they are normally our responsibility. If we have to carry out the work, we will charge you the cost of the work.

Costs incurred when a repair is requested but access not provided or the work rejected.
Any works which must be carried out by a Council contractor which the tenant agreed to undertake during the termination visit prior to the end of the tenancy.

Criminal damage to your home

If you are the victim of criminal damage to any part of your home, you must report the matter to the Police and get a crime reference number to give to us. If we are satisfied that it was someone else, we will carry out the repair at no charge to you. If we are not satisfied, we will charge you the cost of the repairs.

Last updated 5 March 2024
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