Repairs to your home

As a leaseholder, you’re responsible for most of the repairs inside your property.

As a landlord, we’re responsible for some repair and maintenance of the structure of the building, communal areas, and communal systems. Generally, we’re not obliged to repair the interior of your property, but we are responsible for repairs to:

1.the structure of the building

  • roof repairs
  • rainwater pipes and gutters
  • external drains, soil pipes and sewers
  • damp-proofing works
  • brickwork
  • floor joists

2.communal systems

  • door-entry systems
  • district heating
  • communal TV aerials
  • lifts

3.communal areas

If you’re not sure what’s your or our responsibility, check your lease before reporting a repair.

Freeholder repairs

Freeholders are generally responsible for all external and internal repairs to their buildings.

 

Reporting a repair

Reporting a repair

If you think the repair is our responsibility, call 020 8319 8870 to report it or contact us online. Let our team know you’re the leaseholder and we’ll confirm if we can or can’t do the repair. If we need to, we’ll arrange an appointment for a contractor to visit.

Sometimes one of our surveyors will need to inspect the problem first, in which case the Customer Services Officer will make your appointment.

 

Emergency repairs

We do these if there are serious health and safety or security risks, or we need to prevent major damage to your home. In these cases, we’ll raise an order for the contractor to visit as quickly as possible and complete the work, or make your home safe within 24 hours. Emergency repairs include:

  • lift breakdowns
  • complete loss of electricity – we’re responsible for any faults up to the meter in your property. If the fault is your side of the meter, you’ll need to an electrician
  • damage to windows or doors frames, which makes the home insecure
  • blocked communal drains where there’s only one WC.

 

Remember, you’re responsible for most emergencies inside your home, so should call your own contractor, not the Charlton Triangle Homes repairs service. If you call out the emergency repairs contractor for a repair which later turns out not to be an emergency, we’ll charge you for the cost of the work. We’ll also charge you if you use the out-of-hours service instead of a private contractor.

 

If you need to report a repair outside office hours, at weekends or on public holidays, check the repair is a Priority 1 (emergency) repair and call 0300 123 3456. We’ll arrange for a contractor to visit your home within 24 hours. While the contractor will do their best to complete the work, they may have to just make things safe or do a temporary repair until the usual contractor can come the next working day. If the repair is not an emergency, call during office hours and report it in the normal way.

 

Remember, as a leaseholder you’re responsible for internal repairs to your home – such as plumbing or boiler breakdowns – and you’ll be re-charged if you try to use the out-of-hours service instead of a private contractor.

 

Communal repairs

These are repairs to shared areas in your building. If you need to report a communal repair, call us 020 8319 8870. You won’t be charged immediately for this repair, but the cost of repair will be reflected in residents’ annual service charge.

Servicing gas boilers

As a leaseholder, you’re responsible for servicing your gas boiler and appliances.

 

Alterations and improvements

Before you make any alterations improvements to your home, check your lease. Some alterations are not allowed or need written permission from us before you can begin.

We won’t refuse permission without good reason – for example, if the alterations would make the property unsafe. Never start work without permission, as under the terms of your lease you can be made to put your home back to what it was like before you started the work. To make a request for an alteration to your home, contact us.

 

The process

Our surveyor will visit your property to make sure the works won’t cause any problems to the building. After we’ve given permission and you’ve completed the works, they will visit again to check the works, before granting formal consent. You’ll need to provide any completion and professional installation certificates, such as gas or electrical certificates.

Not all home improvements will increase the value of your property by the amount you spend, so consider any home improvements carefully. We won’t allow any changes that would jeopardise fire safety, e.g. changing entrance doors.

 

Structural changes

If your lease does not permit structural alterations, we cannot grant consent for this type of work.

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