Below are answers to some common questions we’ve received about our repair service. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please email [email protected] and we’ll add the answer to the list.
Q1. What’s RHP Home?
RHP Home is our repairs service. Anyone coming to carry out essential or emergency repairs in your home will wear an RHP Home uniform and drive an RHP Home Van.
Anyone coming to carry out any gas or electrical testing on your home will wear a Smith & Byford uniform and carry have ID.
Q2. Who are your new repairs partners?
We’re pleased to have appointed two organisations with a strong track record of providing a high-quality, efficient, and safe service:
- Kier (repairs, empty homes, and planned works).
- Smith & Byford (Gas repairs, heating & hot water repairs and gas & electrical compliance).
Q3. What are the benefits of the new service?
We’ve changed our appointment slots to give you more flexibility and allow more repairs to be fixed on the first visit. Where possible, we’ll avoid appointments that cross over the school run.
Weekdays
- 8am to 1pm & 1pm to 8pm.
- First appointment of the day: 8am-10am.
- Out-of-hour emergencies: 5pm-8am.
Saturdays
- 9am to 12pm.
- First appointment of the day: 9am-10am.
- Out-of-hour emergencies: 24 hours on weekends and bank holidays.
Q4. What timescales are you aiming for?
We’re dealing with unexpectedly high volumes of repairs, partly due to a backlog from the transition between our old and new service. This means there may be a delay with your appointment. Thank you for your patience as we work to get your repairs sorted as quickly as possible.
We’re confident that this is a temporary situation, and our response times will improve as we embed the service.
Below are the timescales we’re aiming to get to. The priority will be based on the type of repair reported, individual circumstances, and the level of risk to you and your home.
General repairs
- Emergency: four hours
- Urgent: five working days
- Non-urgent: 28 calendar days
Gas, heating & hot water repairs
- Emergency: four hours (e.g., gas or water leak)
- Urgent: one working day (e.g., no heating or hot water)
- Non-urgent: 28 calendar days
Q5. What repairs are RHP responsible for?
RHP is responsible for repairs to:
- kitchen units, worktops, kitchen taps, wall tiles & vinyl floor coverings
- baths, basins, toilets, showers, bathroom taps, wall tiles & vinyl floor coverings
- internal and external doors, including fire doors
- window frames, handles, hinges & misted double-glazed windows
- heating & hot water systems, including gas, electrical and non-standard systems
- leaks to roofs, service pipes, rainwater pipes, and gutters
- drainage systems and clearance of blocked internal and external
- electrical supply, electrical fittings, and mains powered smoke alarms
- building structure including roofs, walls, floors, staircases & balconies
- defective wall and ceiling finishes
- disability aids and adaptations
- garages attached to properties and garages within blocks
- boundary and dividing walls, fences, gates, and hard landscaping #
- communal repairs to blocks and estates.
Q7. What repairs are tenants responsible for?
Tenants are responsible for the following repairs:
- repairs to wall and ceiling finishes (minor repairs including filling holes and hairline cracks)
- redecoration
- replacing plugs and chains
- clearing minor blockages to sinks, basins, baths, toilets, showers
- replacing shower heads, rails, or curtains
- replacing standard light bulbs
- replacing toilet seats, bathroom accessories, curtain rails
- maintaining private gardens & repairing garden sheds
- replacing lost door or window keys
- gaining entry due to lost or forgotten door keys
- repairing any accidental or intentional damage caused by you or visitors to your home
- repair or replacing floor coverings outside of the kitchen and bathroom
- replacing batteries in smoke detectors
- cleaning and treating minor mould growth
- bleeding radiators
- topping up boiler pressure.
Q8. What repairs are homeowners responsible for?
Homeowners are responsible for the following repairs:
- repairs inside your home that are not connected to a communal system
- repair or replacement of the flat door
- repairs to glazing.
RHP is responsible for communal repairs, repairs to the building structure, and repairs to homeowner window frames.
Q9. How can I book a repair?
Call 0800 032 2433 to make an appointment for an essential or emergency repair.
Q10. How can I book a gas servicing appointment?
Smith & Byford will write to you when your annual gas service is due, with an appointment date. If the date isn’t convenient, you can contact Smith & Byford to reschedule. Details of how to do this will be in the letter.
Q11. How can I book an electrical check?
Smith & Byford will write to you when your electrical test is due. If the date isn’t convenient, you can contact Smith & Byford to reschedule.
Q12. Will I notice an improvement in the service?
Like many other housing providers across the UK, our repairs service is currently under pressure with high demand, due to a number of external challenges. You can read more about this here.
We’re confident these new partnerships will have a positive impact on our service, responding quickly to keep your homes safe, warm, and comfortable. We hope you start to notice a difference soon, and further improvements throughout the year as we establish our new service. We'll provide a range of opportunities for you to feed back on our repair service, so we can keep getting better.