Services Provided

Maintenance Services

Click here for a separate section on tenants’ responsibilities and advice on work that must not be done without consulting with maintenance staff.

Work Carried Out by Maintenance Department:

Planned Maintenance
Relets
Almshouses
Adaptations
Gas Servicing and Breakdowns
Quality Control

Planned Maintenance
NCHA needs to ensure that its homes are suitable for letting and maintain their value as an asset to the association. Planned maintenance manages a series of contracts which modernise and upgrade properties. Windows, kitchens, roofs and heating systems are some of the key parts of a property that need to be replaced. Technical Officers use the Stock Survey, which provides information on the condition of NCHA’s houses, to select addresses which need to have work carried out on them.

As well as cyclical replacement programmes, planned maintenance also completely modernise homes and carry out major works such as kitchen fitting. NCHA aims to make sure that properties reach the government’s Decent Homes Standard. This is a benchmark which is used to assess whether a house is fit to live in. All rented accommodation must reach this standard by 2010.

Relets
Before a tenant moves into one of our properties NCHA’s relet team has made sure the house is up to standard. When a tenancy ends, housing management ask maintenance to check the property and make sure that any work needed to make it lettable is completed. Properties are cleared and cleaned, joinery and plumbing work is carried out and gas and electric checks are made.

Almshouses

NCHA provides maintenance support to a number of Almshouse charities across the midlands. The level of service required varies between organisations and includes work in care homes, residential blocks and to individual properties.

Norris Homes Almshouse

Adaptations

NCHA will endeavour to make changes to houses in order to respond to the changing needs of tenants. Some cash is set aside by NCHA itself but our staff can also help to find funding through disabled facilities grants managed by local authorities. We need confirmation from an Occupational Therapist that the alteration will benefit our tenants and we also require comprehensive details for the work required. In order to find out more about the adaptations procedure please contact your local housing office.

Gas Servicing and Breakdowns

As a landlord, NCHA is legally required to carry out an annual safety check to gas appliances in its houses. The test is known as a gas service and is designed to make sure that gas-fired boilers and fires being used by our tenants are safe. Two years ago, the association decided to bring this function in-house and set about employing engineers. Now a ten-strong team of Corgi registered tradesman carry out all our safety checks and provide a breakdown service.

Quality Control

Maintenance spends several million pounds a year on repairing the association’s 7,000 homes. In order to make sure that money is being spent wisely and that contractors and our own internal workforce are performing to the required standard, spot checks are conducted on the work that has been carried out.

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