Right to repairs

The Right to Repair is a scheme for council tenants, which ensures that certain small urgent repairs that may affect your health, safety or security, are done quickly and easily. 

If we do not carry out repairs as agreed, you can, in certain circumstances, request the council to send a second operative or contractor.  If the second operative or contractor does not do the repair in time, we will pay you compensation. 

Only certain types of repairs are covered under the Right to Repair scheme. These are called qualifying repairs. They include insecure windows and doors, unsafe power sockets or electrical fittings, leaking roofs and broken entry phone systems.

A repair won't qualify for the scheme if:

• it exceeds an estimated cost of £250
• we aren't responsible for the repair
• if you're not at home to let the contractor in as arranged

If you report a qualifying repair, we will inspect it to check that it qualifies. If it doesn't, we will write to you and tell you.

If it does qualify, we will issue a repair notice and send you a copy with information on how the Right to Repair scheme works. There will be a time limit (depending on the type of repair as set out by law) for the work to be done.

If the repair work isn't done within the specified time limit, you need to tell us and we will ask for another operative or contractor to do the work. If another operative or contractor is available, we will issue a repair notice to them and send you a copy. We can only use contractors on our list.

If the second operative or contractor doesn't do the repair work within the time limit, you'll get £10 in compensation. For every extra day you wait, you'll get another £2. The most compensation you can get for any one job is £50.

If you have any rent arrears, we can use the compensation to reduce the arrears rather than paying you the money.