Maintaining your home. Planned Maintenance and your home

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1 Maintaining your home Planned Maintenance and your home

2 Planned Maintenance involves the complete renewal of major components in your home, and happens once these elements have gone beyond their expected lifetime. This work is planned by the Trust and always forms part of wider programme of improvement works. This is different from day to day repairs which are always reported by you when repairs are required to maintain a safe environment in your home. What is Planned These are some of the programmes currently carried out: Kitchen & bathroom replacements Fitting of new windows Installation of new central heating systems Remedial roofing Rewiring Repairs and painting. How do the Trust choose which homes need planned maintenance? Every December the budgets for our annual Planned Maintenance programmes are confirmed. This enables the Trust s maintenance department to identify how many properties can be included in the forthcoming year. As the Trust has already carried out a survey of all of their properties, the maintenance team is then quickly able to determine which properties are most in need of Planned Maintenance work.

3 This is made possible by computer software, which compares the age and condition of all aspects of your home, with all of the other homes on our database. This method of compiling lists of properties to be updated ensures total fairness at all times and, in any given year, enables us to improve the highest priority homes. Maintenance?

4 What will you do in my home? If your home is to undergo improvement works in the forthcoming year, we will write to you and invite you to the Trust s planned maintenance exhibition BVT Better Living. Enclosed within the invitation will be a copy of Planning for your Planned Maintenance DVD, which provides all the information on what to expect when receiving planned maintenance. Held at a local venue, Better Living presents the perfect opportunity for you to see actual samples of the fixtures and fittings that will be used to modernise your home. You will also be able to meet the members of staff responsible for the work to be undertaken and ask any questions you may have. You will also get an idea of the many options available, to ensure you make the best decisions for your home. A date will be given for our Surveyor to pay a pre-start visit to establish exactly what works are needed. This is to try to ensure that overall disruption is kept to a minimum. Our surveyor will offer all the assistance you need to make the right decision for you and your home. They will also explain what to expect when the work on your home begins and will ensure you have someone you can contact, should you have questions in the meantime. After the survey has been completed, the contractor who is to carry out the work will be in touch to arrange a mutually convenient start date. Our contractors will be happy to work in your home whether you are there or not. If you are happy to provide them with a key, you will be free to come and go as you please; even go off on holiday, safe in the knowledge your home will remain secure. Whatever work we undertake in your home, your satisfaction is extremely important to us, and we want to hear your views. Once all work is complete and final inspections have been made, our Business Improvement Unit will be in touch to hear your views.

5 Can I refuse to have work done? Many of the planned works that the Trust carries out significantly improve our homes in lots of different ways. From making facilities more convenient to use, to improving the overall look of your home, most of our residents find such works of great benefit. Sometimes though, people feel that the idea of having such works carried out is not for them. This can be for a wide range of reasons. Maintenance staff at the Trust are on hand to help you make the right decisions for you and your home. As long as the works you wish to refuse are not being carried out for the purposes of health and safety (such as electrical maintenance and gas servicing), then we will do our best to comply with your preferences.

6 What essential work has to be carried out? Gas Servicing By law, every rental property in the country that has any sort of gas appliance requires a gas safety certificate. This certificate proves that the gas supply and appliances in your home have been fully serviced and are safe. As these certificates have to be renewed on an annual basis, the Trust will require access to your home every year. Each stage of the process is explained on the next page.

7 STAGE 1 Six weeks before your gas service is due, Bournville Propertycare Services on behalf of the Trust will send you a letter, giving you an appointment for the service to take place. If this appointment is not convenient, please contact Bournville Propertycare Services and we will re-arrange a time to suit you. We will telephone throughout all stages in an attempt to make an appointment. If we have not gained access 14 days prior to the anniversary date a NOTICE SEEKING POSSESSION will be served. 2 If we were unable to gain access to your home on the appointed day, we will leave a yellow card requesting that you contact us to rearrange. STAGE 3 Seven days after the yellow slip is left, if we have still received no contact from you to arrange the service, we will call at your home again and leave a red letter if you are not at home. STAGE 4 Five days after the red letter has been delivered, we will make one final phone call to you and send one final letter, reminding you of the importance of gas servicing and detailing all our attempts to arrange access with you. STAGE 5 If unsuccessful at this stage, we will pass the case on to our Housing Officers who will take action, usually leading to a NOTICE SEEKING POSSESSION which could lead to the loss of your home. STAGE

8 Planned Electrical Works Having electrical works taking place in your home is never a pleasant experience. But, just like gas servicing, the Trust is required by law to ensure that the electrical wiring and fittings in your home are checked regularly and brought in line with the regulations of the day. These rules exist for one reason only to keep you and your household safe. Here is the process we follow, so you will know what to expect.

9 STAGE 1 We are required to do a full check of the electrical installation within your home every 10 years. Stage 1 will be an inspection by one of our qualified electricians. This is a comprehensive check and could take up to 2-3 hours. This is the point where the decision will be made as to what work will be required in your home to meet national standards. We will do all we can to avoid having to do a full rewire and in most cases this is possible. But sometimes complete rewiring is the only way that we can ensure your safety and compliance with the current regulations. STAGE 2 STAGE 3 In advance of the works taking place we will write to you and inform you whether a full rewire is required or only an upgrade will take place. If a rewire is required, we will provide you with an information DVD or brochure with detailed images and all the information you will need. Maintenance staff at the Trust will be available to discuss any issues you have in detail. Repeated failure to allow access for essential electrical inspections or works can also leave the Trust with no alternative but to serve a NOTICE SEEKING POSSESSION which could lead to the loss of your home. Unless we find that your electrical wiring is in a dangerous condition, we will not carry out any work in the same year as the inspection. We will wait until the following year before carrying out the required works, giving you ample time to discuss any special requirements with us and perhaps put on hold any planned decorative works until the wiring work is complete.

10 Decent Homes and beyond The Decent Homes programme has had a dramatic, positive effect on the living conditions of almost all social housing tenants, ensuring that significant sums of money have been spent in home improvements, for example, the replacement of key components such as kitchens, bathrooms, heating systems and electrical rewiring. By the end of 2010, all the Trust s properties met or exceeded the government s Decent Homes Standard. After 2010 we will continue investment to ensure all our homes meet the required standards.

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12 How to contact us For general advice and further information contact: BVT BIRMINGHAM TELEPHONE On request, we can supply an audio CD giving all the information contained in this leaflet. BVT SHROPSHIRE TELEPHONE Bournville Village Trust, Estate Office, Oak Tree Lane, Bournville, Birmingham B30 1UB P2995