Supported Housing Bristol - Repairs and Maintenance

All repairs that are reported to us are important, but we need to deal with them in order of priority.

Your repair may need to be attended to quickly because it could lead to injury or property damage. Depending on the repair, we can attend within 24 hours, every day of the year.

In an emergency, don’t report your repair in writing or online. Call us straight away on 01454 411172 (during office hours) or 0808 169 2910 (outside of office hours)

We will make you aware of how quickly we can attend when you contact us. Depending on the incident, we might make sure it’s safe to complete the works first and then arrange a follow up appointment to complete the works.

Please note that if you provide misleading or false information that makes us believe your repair is an emergency when it’s not, we’ll charge you for the call-out.

All other repairs will be appointed and we will arrange time and date that is convenient for you, within a maximum of 21 days.

Our operatives may carry out an assessment at first and then may request an additional appointment to complete your repair.

Safety Checks

It is the residents’ legal responsibility to allow Elim access to complete safety checks.

Please note that before the gas and electrical safety checks can be carried out, it is your responsibility to ensure you have gas and electricity credit on your meters, as the service cannot be completed without gas and electricity being available.

As a landlord, we must make sure all gas appliances, flues and pipework within homes that we manage are safely maintained and checked once a year. Our gas service engineers need access to your home to carry out the annual gas safety check.

By law, we must carry out a gas safety check every 12 months.
We will normally be in touch several weeks before the anniversary date to arrange an appointment and make sure that the check is completed before the anniversary date.
All of our checks are carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer - they all carry an ID card.

When dealing with low pressure in boilers, an engineer may not be needed to get your boiler working efficiently again. We have put together useful guides to help you top up low pressure in your Worcester or Baxi Boiler.

As a landlord, we must ensure that all electrical installations are in a satisfactory condition for continued service. At Elim, these tests are completed every 5 years.

Periodic inspection and testing is necessary as electrical installations deteriorate due to a number of factors such as damage, wear and tear, corrosion, excessive electrical loading, ageing, and environmental influences.

Your Repairs Responsibilities

We take responsibility for repairing and maintaining your home. However, there are some things in your home that we expect you to look after and take responsibility for. It is the tenants responsibility to obtain Home Contents Insurance for any personal belongings.

Your Repairs Appointment

Our contractors will be in touch to make an appointment to carry out your repair. Please clear any area our contractors might need to access to during the visit. Please ensure dogs are kept in another room. If you can no longer make the appointment, please let us know as soon as possible. Missed visits are rechargeable.

Please make sure there’s a responsible adult over the age of 18 there when we arrive – if there’s not, we won’t be able to carry out the repair and will have to re-book the appointment.

Making Adaptions to Your Home

We will normally ask that an occupational therapist assesses your needs and provides us with a report to recommend adaptations specifically designed for you. You can get occupational therapy for free through the NHS or social services, depending on your situation.

We carry out minor adaptations for residents and work with local authority partners when major works are required. We can help residents apply for Disabled Facilities Grants when appropriate. If you would like advice or support on making your home safer and more convenient for you or a disabled family member who lives with you, please let us know.

Improving or Maintaining Your Home

To make your house a home, you might want to make changes or do some DIY – but it’s important you don’t start any work without talking to us first. In most cases we’ll be happy for you to make minor changes, but you still need to let us know what you want to do and ask us for permission before you begin.

You don’t need our permission for low-level decorating, like painting walls.

We will need you to complete a Permission for Adjustments form so that we can consider the details of what you would like to do. We’ll get back to you, to either give you permission or tell you why you can’t make the changes.