As it’s not our responsibility to retrieve fallen keys, you’ll be charged for this service.

To help you we can contact the lift contractor, advise them of the situation and ask what the charge will be to you if they attend to retrieve the keys.

If you’re happy to pay the charge, we’ll put you through to the contractor so you can pay in advance. They’ll then arrange a visit directly with you.

Please contact us and we will arrange for a repairs surveyor to come and visit you.

The repairs surveyor will be able to support you in completing any application required, and will also need to approve any works to the property.

We’ll only refuse an alteration or adaptation if there is a good reason.

For example, where it’s not physically possible to alter your home in the requested way or if an adaptation would present a health and safety risk. In this situation we’ll work with you and your occupational therapist to consider options such as suitable alternative accommodation.

Minor adaptations: these are small items, such as a request for grab rails, lever taps, door handles, or additional power sockets, where the cost is simple and costs under £2000

Major adaptations: are where the adaptation requires major work or a structural change, such as a stair lift, ramps or any major internal re-arrangements to accommodate a person with a disability.

If the recommended work costs more than £2,000 we would support you in applying for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) from the local authority to help fund the cost. Residents need our approval before any works are carried out.

Please note that we do not provide adaptations for leaseholders, however they may still be able to access Disabled Facilities Grant funding by approaching their local authority. We will support all applications made.

In any case, all residents (including leaseholders) need our approval before any major adaptations to the property are carried out.

Please note we don’t provide adaptations for leaseholders or shared ownership customers, however we will provide consent to carry out these works.

If you rent your home from us and you require an adaptation, you will need to obtain a letter from your occupational therapist identifying what adaptations are needed and how they will support you. To help you fully we’ll need to know if you require a minor or major adaptation.

You can apply for a disabled facilities grant (DFG) if you are disabled and would like to make changes in your home to accommodate your disability. For example, widening doors, or installing a ramp, or improving access in general in, or to the property.

For more details on a DFG including how to apply please see Disabled Facilities Grants.

Minor adaptations

We'll repair items such as grab rails and lever taps.

Please contact us by reporting a repair online. You’ll need to give us the full details of the item that needs repairing and we’ll arrange a repair appointment for you.

Major adaptations installed less than 12 months ago

In the case of adaptations involving major works, or structural changes such as ramps and stairlifts, please check if it was first installed less than 12 months ago. If so it should still be under warranty.

In this case, please check any information provided to you at the time of installation and contact the contractor directly for repair.

If you don’t have these details, please contact your local authority to obtain the details of the contractor, as we usually refer major adaptations to local authorities.

If the major adaptation was installed over 12 months ago, please contact us to report a repair online. You’ll need to give us the full details of the item that needs repairing and we’ll arrange a repair appointment for you.

An appliance test will help you to identify whether a faulty appliance has caused a loss in power.

• Turn off and unplug every electric appliance in your home – including your  fridge freezer. This will only take a few minutes so any items are unlikely to spoil.
• Go to the fuse board and reset all the switches.
• Then one by one, plug back in every appliance and see if this causes any of the switches on the fuse box to trip.
• If a switch does trip, this indicates a fault with an appliance.

Household appliances are your responsibility to replace, or repair.

We’ll usually assess the need for a new bath when we’re due to carry out our planned kitchen and bathroom cyclical works. If you feel that your bathtub needs work before the planned works are due, let us know.

If we can’t repair the bathtub or it poses a health and safety risk, we can arrange for a repairs surveyor to visit and make an assessment for a new bath.

Please note that if repairs are needed to the bathtub due to tenant damage, this may be deemed your responsibility to repair.

To arrange a repairs surveyor to visit you please contact us.

You may be able to resolve the blockage using a plunger, or a household product for unblocking sinks and/or drains.

If this doesn’t resolve the issue, please contact us to arrange a repair.

So we can assist you fully, we’ll also ask you if any of your neighbours are affected and if there’s more than one blockage in your home. Please try to find this out before you contact us.

So that we can try and resolve this problem, please consider the following first:

Have you checked your fuse box?

Were you using an appliance at the time the electricity went off? If so, have you checked your fuse box to see if a trip has switched?
Sometimes a fault with an appliance can cause a switch to trip on the fuse box. In these cases it’s helpful to carry out an appliance test.

Are payments up-to-date?

If you pay your electric on a meter, please check that you have credit on the meter.

If you pay your electricity bill to a supplier, please check all payments up to date.

Do you know if your neighbours have also lost power?

If you’ve lost power to all your home and not just parts of it, find out if your neighbours have also been affected.

For instance, if an electricity supplier is carrying out works in an area it can on occasion, cause a sudden loss in power. In these cases, contact the electricity supplier to establish when power will return.

If the above doesn’t apply, contact us to arrange an appointment.

So that we can try and resolve the problem, we would ask that you consider the following first:

Do you pay for your heating on a meter?

If so, are the gas, or electric meters in credit?

Have you checked the gauge on your gas boiler to see if the pressure has dropped?

Sometimes with a gas boiler, a loss in pressure can affect heating and hot water. You can usually tell if this is the case if the pressure needle has dropped, or if your digital display is flashing to indicate a drop in pressure.

Usually, if the pressure is below 0.5 then the water pressure has dropped. Topping up the water pressure is straight forward and in most cases can easily be done by you.

As this issue will be deemed as non-urgent, doing this yourself will also mean that you do not have to wait for a contractor to attend your home to do this for you.

For help, you may wish to refer to your user manual to see how to top up the water pressure. Alternatively, you may wish to go online and look up the boiler you have to see how to top up water pressure.

Are any thermostats, or controllers set properly?

It is helpful to check if these are set properly. This is particularly helpful if the clocks have gone forward, or back recently, as this will affect heating timers.

If the above does not apply, please contact us so that we can arrange an appointment for you.

It is helpful for us to know the following when you contact us:

• Do you have a gas, or electric heating (immersion) system?
• Can you tell us of any error messages showing on the boiler?
• Are all radiators not working, or only certain ones?
• How long have you not had heating for?

So that we can try and resolve the problem, we would ask that you consider the following first:

Do you pay for your hot water on a meter?

If so, are the gas, or electric meters in credit?

Have you checked the gauge on your gas boiler to see if the pressure has dropped?

Sometimes with a gas boiler, a loss in pressure can affect heating and hot water. You can usually tell if this is the case if the pressure needle has dropped, or if your digital display is flashing to indicate a drop in pressure.

Usually, if the pressure is below 0.5 then the water pressure has dropped. Topping up the water pressure is straight forward and in most cases can easily be done by the customer. As this issue will be deemed as non-urgent, doing this yourself will also mean that you do not have to wait for a contractor to attend your home to do this for you. For help you may wish to refer to your user manual to see how to top up the water pressure. Alternatively, you may wish to go online and look up the boiler you have to see how to top up water pressure.

Are any hot water programmers set correctly?

It is helpful to check if these are set properly. This is particularly helpful if the clocks have gone forward, or back recently, as this will affect hot water, or heating timers.

If the above does not apply, please contact us so that we can arrange an appointment for you.

It is helpful for us to know the following when you contact us:

• Do you have an electric heating (immersion) system to use as a back-up?
• Can you tell us of any error messages showing on your boiler?
• Are all the hot water taps affected, or just some?
• How long have you not had hot water for?

A stopcock is a valve for turning off and on the cold water system in your home. When you turn the stopcock in a clockwise direction the water supply will be shut off.

You can turn the water supply back on by turning the stopcock in an anti-clockwise direction.

Stopcocks are usually found in your kitchen, below the sink unit. In some houses the stopcock is found in a front or back hall.

In a flat the stopcock may be in a communal hallway.

There is also a main stop cock outside in the pavement which is owned by the local water company and can only be controlled by the company, not by an individual.

A gas safety check is a legal requirement and is carried out once a year. Our gas contractors can arrange appointments to carry these out any time from nine months after the last inspection.

Sometimes with a gas boiler, a loss in pressure can affect heating and hot water. You can usually tell if this is the case if the pressure needle has dropped, or if your digital display is flashing to indicate a drop in pressure.

Usually, if the pressure is below 0.5 then the water pressure has dropped.

Topping up the water pressure is straight forward and in most cases can easily be done by the customer. As this issue will be deemed as non-urgent, doing this yourself will also mean that you do not have to wait for a contractor to attend your home to do this for you.

For help you may wish to refer to your user manual to see how to top up the water pressure. Alternatively, you may wish to go online and look up the boiler you have to see how to top up water pressure.

So that we can help you we will need to know what has happened as a result of your boiler not working, for instance, which of the following apply:

• I have hot water but no heating?
• I have heating but no hot water?
• I have neither hot water nor heating?

Please contact us with full details so that we can arrange a repair for you.

A gas safety check is a check that is done once a year, on the gas appliances that we provide in your home, such as a boiler.

Your gas safety checks are carried out by a qualified Gas Safe engineer. This is a legal requirement and is in place for health and safety reasons.

So that we can try and resolve the problem, we would ask that you consider the following first:

Do you pay for your heating on a meter?

If so, are the gas, or electric meters in credit?

Have you checked the gauge on your gas boiler to see if the pressure has dropped?

Sometimes with a gas boiler, a loss in pressure can affect heating and hot water. You can usually tell if this is the case if the pressure needle has dropped, or if your digital display is flashing to indicate a drop in pressure.

Usually, if the pressure is below 0.5 then the water pressure has dropped. Topping up the water pressure is straight forward and in most cases can easily be done by you.

As this issue will be deemed as non-urgent, doing this yourself will also mean that you do not have to wait for a contractor to attend your home to do this for you.

For help, you may wish to refer to your user manual to see how to top up the water pressure. Alternatively, you may wish to go online and look up the boiler you have to see how to top up water pressure.

Are any thermostats, or controllers set properly?

It is helpful to check if these are set properly. This is particularly helpful if the clocks have gone forward, or back recently, as this will affect heating timers.

If the above does not apply, please contact us so that we can arrange an appointment for you.

It is helpful for us to know the following when you contact us:

• Do you have a gas, or electric heating (immersion) system?
• Can you tell us of any error messages showing on the boiler?
• Are all radiators not working, or only certain ones?
• How long have you not had heating for?

The engineer will carry out a visual check on all the gas appliances that we own, such as gas fires and boilers. They’ll also check the gas supply pipes and the gas meter. This takes around 40 minutes.

At the end of the check the engineer will produce a Landlord Gas Safety Record certificate, which you will be asked to sign and a copy will be given to you.

It’s our responsibility to repair the gas meter door, unless it’s been damaged by you.

If you've suffered an injury, or a personal loss and believe it is due to our negligence we'll need you to provide us with the following information so that we can investigate your concerns:

• Full written details of what incident has occurred causing injury or loss, including photographs if you have them.
• Details of any injury sustained.
• Details of any personal loss.
• Details of why you feel that Peabody is responsible.

Please send this information to us online or by post. We'll acknowledge the information that you have sent and the matter will be investigated.

When you have been decanted it means that we have had to move you as your home is temporarily uninhabitable. Reasons why a customer may be decanted include your home being affected by a serious leak, a fire, etc.

In some cases you may be decanted as your original home may be demolished as part of an area regeneration scheme – in these instances you will be consulted prior to any action being taken.

If your smoke alarm is beeping irregularly the action you need to take will depend on whether your smoke alarm is battery operated, or hard wired:

Battery operated smoke alarm

An intermittent, or irregular beeping usually indicates the battery is low and needs replacing.

• For the older model of smoke alarm the battery is usually a 9V square battery.
• The newer models have a lithium battery and cannot be replaced, in this case you will need to buy a new smoke alarm.

Hard wired smoke alarm

An intermittent, or irregular beeping in this case usually indicates a mains supply failure.

• You can see if this is the case by checking if the small LED light on the smoke alarm is still showing. If it has gone out this is likely to mean that there has been a mains supply failure. You should check your mains fuse board and in the row of switches see if a switch is pointing downwards, if it is, please re-set this by pulling the switch up.
• Press and hold the reset button on the smoke alarm itself to stop the beeping.

If you've taken the above action and the irregular beeping continues, please contact us so that we can arrange an appointment for a repair.

RD Consultants are the company contracted by us to carry out water hygiene surveys in our properties.

The survey will be carried out to our properties over a six year period and you will be written to when your survey is due.

The survey should take no more than 30 minutes and we will need to inspect any boilers, or water storage facilities in your property. Samples of the water will also be taken from available water pipes.

For any other queries about the water hygiene survey, please contact us.

Our asset management team are carrying out a programme to survey the water quality in Peabody homes. This programme will be completed over a six year period.

If your home is due to have your water surveyed, a Water Hygiene Survey letter will be sent to you advising of further details and the need for us to access your property.

This allows us to survey the water for any traces of bacteria, for example, such as Legionella. Legionella can sometimes be found in under-used / dirty water systems and can cause sickness and diarrhoea (this is known as Legionnaires disease).

You will not get Legionnaires disease through drinking water contaminated with the bacteria, it can only be absorbed into the body via a water spray/mist, such as spray from a shower.

Yes, you’ll need our written permission before installing a dish. 

See the below for further advice:

If you live in a flat and the building has a communal satellite dish, you don’t need to install your own dish.

If you'd still like to install your own dish, or if you live in a house, please follow these steps:

1. Request a satellite dish permission form from us, then complete it and return it to us. You can request this by contacting us.
2. Contact your local authority to check if your home is a listed building or is in a conservation area: if so you’ll need to apply for planning permission.
3. Send the satellite dish permission form, and the planning consent details (if applicable) to us by uploading a copy to us online or by posting the hard copy to us.

Once we receive the above documentation we’ll make a decision in line with our policy, and we’ll write to you to confirm the request has been approved or refused.

You'll need authorisation from us if the meter is to be installed within the boundaries of our land. However, you don't need our permission for meters being installed in public areas such as the pavement.

Please contact us if you have any queries on this.

Yes, you'll need our permission to make improvements to your home.

If you're a leaseholder or shared owner, please contact us and ask to speak to the Home Ownership Approvals team.

If you rent your home from us, you'll need to complete an application, and send in written estimates or technical plans detailing the work planned, the costs, and details on how the work will improve your home. Please contact us to discuss your request.

No, we do not give permission for conservatories to be added to homes in this instance.

Please note that you need to obtain our written permission before carrying out any improvements.

You can make improvements to your home, as long as they don’t:

• Affect the health and safety of the home.
• Make the property unsafe.
• Increase our maintenance costs.
• Reduce the living space.
• Breach planning, building or conservation area regulations.
• Affect any work planned by us already.
• Reduce the value of the property.
• Affect the fire resistance or integrity of the home.

These are the types of improvements you can make:

• Bath or shower.
• Wash-hand basin.
• Toilet.
• Kitchen sink.
• Storage cupboards in bathroom and kitchen.
• Work surfaces for food preparation.
• Space or water heating.
• Thermostatic radiator valves.
• Insulation of pipes, water tank, or cylinder.
• Loft insulation.
• Cavity wall insulation.
• Draught proofing of external doors and windows.
• Double glazing or external window replacement or secondary glazing.
• Rewiring the provision of power and lighting or electrical fittings (including smoke detector).
• Any object which improves the security of the house, but excluding burglar alarms.

We'll charge you for the cost of uninstalling the dish.

Repairing or replacing plugs and chains to sinks are your responsibility. But if the plug is attached via a push mechanism and needs repairing, we can arrange this for you.

You can report this non urgent repair online.

Our priority is to make sure your home is warm, safe and dry. If you have problems with damp, mould or condensation in your home, please let us know straight away.

Please visit our main website for more information on how we can help you deal with damp, mould and condensation.

Use a plunger to unblock a toilet. If the toilet pan is already full, scoop out some of the water into a bucket and push the plunger to the bottom of the pan and pump it up and down quickly about 10 times. Flush the toilet to see if the blockage has gone. You may have to repeat this a few times.

If you have tried to unblock the toilet and have not been able to, please contact us to arrange a repair.

Please note this will not be treated as an emergency unless you do not have access to any other toilet.

In addition, if we find the blockage has been caused by items such as nappies, or sanitary towels being put into the toilet, you may be charged for the unblocking of the toilet.

If you've lost your key and are locked out as a result, it's your responsibility to call a locksmith.

If you're locked out because of a faulty lock we can raise this as an emergency repair. Please contact us if this is the case. Please note if the lock is found not to be faulty you may be re-charged for this visit.

If you’ve moved to a newly built home, minor cracks appearing while the building settles are quite common. We’ll pick these up at the end of the defects period.

If you don’t live in a new build home, please consider how big the cracks are:

Hairline cracks: these are very fine small cracks, which are your responsibility to repair. These can be filled quite easily but please visit your local DIY store or go online for advice on how to do this if required.

Large cracks: as a rough indicator, if you can run a £1 coin widthways inside the crack from the bottom to the top please contact us. We can arrange a repair or for a repairs surveyor to visit.

Please contact us to report a repair.

All the works are put out to tender and awarded to the contractor on the basis of cost and quality of the works.

Leaseholders will have the right to analyse the estimates we receive prior to the works commencing, and, in some cases, they may have the opportunity to choose some of the materials or colours to be used.

Further information on this will be provided to you when any works begin.

We'll write to you to arrange a survey and confirm any works once your home is identified for improvements.

If you'd like to find out if your home is scheduled to be upgraded soon please contact us for more information.

Once you receive our letter, please make an appointment with our contractor, as instructed.

Your electrics will be switched off for the duration of the test, but this shouldn’t affect your fridge-freezer. If you have any equipment that requires a continuous electrical supply, such as medical appliances, please let us know as soon as you receive the appointment letter, by calling the numbers listed in it.

On the day of the test, our contractors will need easy access to switches and sockets. It would be helpful if you could move pieces of furniture that can get in their way, but if you are not able to do this yourself, our contractors will help.

Planned maintenance is prioritised based on the age and condition of the components, such as your kitchen or bathroom, in your home. 

Budget restraints, and in some cases other homes that need to take priority, can influence where homes are placed in the programme.

Under landlord regulations we are required to carry out electrical testing every 5 years. This, together with rewiring programmes and updates to empty homes, adds to electrical tests to over 3000 homes carried out by us every year.

We test all our housing stock through a rolling program based on the expiration date of the current certificate.

We manage the program and the actual testing is carried out by a selection of contractors that are fully vetted and qualified.

We maintain our homes as per the decent homes standard and our works are carried out during the financial year, which runs from the beginning of April of the current year, to the end of March in the following year.

The following guidance gives some idea as to when we expect to replace the components in your home:

• Boiler – every 15 years.
• Radiators and Storage Heaters – every 30 years.
• Kitchen – every 20 years.
• Bathroom/Shower Rooms & WC’s – every 30 years.
• Rewire – every 30 years.
• Windows and Doors – every 30 years.
• Roof – every 60 to 80 years.
• Flat Roof – every 15 to 25 years.
• External decorations – this programme is currently under review.

Please note that although we make every effort to meet these time frames, on occasion budget restraints, and in some cases other homes that need to take priority, can affect when planned maintenance works are carried out.

When your home is identified for improvements, we'll write to you to arrange a survey and confirm the work that will be undertaken.

If you need to request a repair please contact us. If the repair is non urgent you can report it online and our team will contact you within 48 hours.

Someone aged 16 or over must always be present when our repairs team attend a customer’s home for an appointment.

We encourage all residents to have insurance for their home contents. Where there has been criminal damage you'll then be able to claim this on your home insurance.

For further information on contents insurance, please contact us.

Yes, we're responsible for repairing a roof that is on a block of flats, or in a converted house (even if the converted house has all leaseholders living in it).

However,  if you're a leaseholder, or shared owner living in a house, then you will be responsible for all repairs to your home, including roof, boundary walls and fences.

To help you fully, we'll need to know the answers to the following questions.

1. Your address and are you renting from us, or are you a leaseholder?
2. Is your home in a block of flats, or flats in a converted house?
3. Where in your home is the leak coming in? For instance, which room, or hallway, etc.?
4. Do you know if it is definitely the roof space above you that the leak is coming from? Or is there a water tank above?
5. How long has the roof been leaking for and does it only leak when it rains?
6. How bad is the leak?
7. Is the leak affecting any electrics, such as light fittings?

Once we have this information we'll be able to arrange a repair for you. Please contact us to book a repair.

Everyone has the right to a safe and secure place to call home.
 
The Decent Homes Standard explains what a decent home is and applies to social housing. You can find more information on the government's website.

To ensure a well-maintained home, it’s important to understand both your responsibilities and our obligations when it comes to repairs.