Housing repairs policy

Our employees, and contractors, will be respectful, polite, and helpful at all times. They will also show visible photo identification before entering a tenant's home and will explain what work will be carried out and discuss this with the tenant.

The Council, through its Equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, is committed to delivering meaningful and lasting improvements for local people, by adopting and developing good equality and inclusion practice. We aim to create a place where people treat each other with dignity and respect. We will also ensure all our staff receive appropriate equality and diversity training.

We will try to take care of all tenant's belongings whilst working in their home, protecting them from damage and dust. To assist this, customers are expected to clear the area of any belongings or valuable items prior to work commencing.

Employees and our contractors will work safely in and around the customer's home, ensuring materials and tools do not cause any hazards to occupants. Rubbish and mess will be kept to a minimum and removed at the end of each day.

Where services such as electricity, water and gas will be disrupted, the tenant will be informed how long they will be affected, and every effort will be made to reinstate services before the end of the day. We will advise tenants where this is not possible and reasonable alternative arrangements will be made considering the differing impacts caused by vulnerability, or the protected characteristic of the tenant/s and their household.

We will not tolerate any abuse, or inappropriate behaviour towards our staff or contractors, by tenants, their household, or their visitors. All tenants are expected to treat staff with respect and dignity. This means that tenants, their household and/or their visitors must refrain from behaving in a way that is aggressive, threatening, abusive or insulting. Nor must they engage in any behaviour, intentional or otherwise, that constitutes harassment or discrimination. We will take reasonable action to protect staff from such behaviour where appropriate.