Moray Council is committed to providing tenants with well maintained homes

How you can report a repair

You can report repairs:

• by phoning or emailing the Area Housing Offices or Access Point 
• by visiting the Area Housing Office or Access Point
• by visiting a local surgery; or
• through someone else on your behalf.

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What we will need to know when you report a repair

Please give us the following information.

• Your name, address and daytime phone number.
• As much about the repair as possible.
• Whether you have reported the repair before.
• When someone is available to let us into your home.

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What we will tell you when you report a repair

When you report a repair, we will tell you how long the repair will take and give you an approximate time when workmen will call. We will send you a receipt giving:

• a brief description of the repair;
• the priority we have given to the work, including the date by which the repair should be finished; and
• a contact name and phone number.

We will only issue receipts for priority work, ordinary work and appointment categories.

We will also tell you if the repair is a ‘qualifying repair’ under the ' Right to Repair’ scheme.

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Timescales for repairs

There are different categories of repairs, each with different response times.

Who is responsible for what repair

Certain repairs are our responsibility and certain repairs are your responsibility .

Our responsibilities

We are responsible for repairing and maintaining the structure of the property you live in.

We will do the following:

• Keep your house windtight and watertight.
• Keep in repair the structure and outside of your house.
• Keep in repair and in proper working order any installation in your house we have provided for:
  • supplying gas and electricity;
  • sanitation;
  • hot water and heating; and
  • fireplaces, flues and chimneys.
• Each year, inspect any gas installation in your house we have provided and give you a copy of the inspection report within 28 days of the inspection.

Your responsibilities

You must do the following:

• Report repairs as soon as possible.
• Report to us and the police any vandalism to your house. Remember to get a crime reference number.
• Take care of your house, including carrying out minor repairs and decorating the inside.

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What we class as an emergency repair

Emergency repairs are to fix problems that are:

• a danger to health;
• a risk to safety;
• a risk of damage to your property;
• a serious damage to the building; or
• a risk to security (for example, doors that will not close).

How long an emergency repair takes

We will respond to an emergency repair within two hours. This does not mean that your repair will be finished, but we will quickly give you an estimate of how long the repair will take. You must be available to let us into your home for this.

Examples of an emergency repair

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Repairs by appointment

When you report a repair , we will try and arrange an appointment with you for a repair or an inspection to be carried out. When we have arranged this, we will send you a repairs receipt which will include:

• a brief description of the repair;
• the priority we have given it (including the date by which the repair should be finished); and
• a contact name and phone number.

The repairs receipt also has a satisfaction questionnaire which we need you to fill in and return to us.

Missed calls

If the contractor calls while no-one is home, they will leave a card asking you to give details of when you will be at home. Please return this to us as soon as possible.

Satisfaction

If you are not happy with the repairs, let us know and we will deal with the contractor on your behalf.

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Will I ever be charged for a repair?

In some instances you may be charged for a repair - these are known as "rechargeable repairs".

A rechargeable repair is a repair that:

• is your responsibility ;
• is needed to repair damage to the property that is a result of deliberate damage, neglect, misuse, or abuse by you, your family or visitors to your property; or
• is needed when you move out of the house to bring it up to an acceptable standard, which is your responsibility.

We will charge you for a repair if any of these applies.

• When an item is rechargeable, we will let you know at the time you report the repair.
• We will tell you the estimated cost of carrying out the repair.
• We will give you the option of carrying out the repair yourself or getting us to carry it out for you.
• In the case of an emergency repair, we will tell you that we will make an extra fixed call-out charge and how much this will be.

If you would like more information please refer to our Rechargeable Repairs Policy.

Moving house

When you tell us that you are leaving your current home, a housing officer will inspect the property. If the housing officer finds any damage to the house, or if you have made any alterations without our permission or carried out work that is not up to standard or is not safe, we will let you know. At this time we will give you a chance to restore or make good the items before you leave.

After you leave your home, we will carry our another inspection. If we find that you have not done the repairs or the work you have carried out is poor and not to an agreed standard, we will tell you and arrange to carry out the work ourselves (we will charge the cost to you).

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We will not charge you for repairs arising due to fair wear and tear or for things we did not tell you about.

How to pay for the repair

When we have carried out the repair, we will send a bill. On the back of this there will be details of how and where you can pay.

• If you feel that you cannot pay the whole bill at one, you may be able to pay the bill in instalments.
• If you want to pay by instalments, you should contact your  Area Housing Office .

What happens if you do not pay your bill

• If you don’t pay your bill, we will take action against you to get you to pay.
• Owing money in connection with a tenancy will affect your right to buy.

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 Compensation for Improvements

Before you end your tenancy, you may be entitled to compensation for any improvements you have carried out. To qualify for compensation, we must have given you our permission in writing for the improvement and your tenancy must have ended.

This does not apply if you are ending your tenancy because you are buying your home under the ‘Right to buy’ scheme.

Improvements that may qualify for compensation

To claim compensation, you must write to us within 28 days before your tenancy ends, and no later than 21 days after that date. We will need:

• to know what improvements you have made;
• proof of how much each improvement cost; and
• the date the improvements were started and finished.

You can receive up to £4000 for each improvement. However, we will not pay compensation for an improvement if we work out the amount of compensation to be less than £100.

For more information on the ‘Right to compensation’ scheme, please contact your Area Housing Office or see the leaflet issued by the Scottish Executive "Right to Compensation for Improvements"

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The ‘Right to Repair’ scheme

Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, tenants with Scottish Secure tenancies or Short Scottish secure tenancies have the right to have certain small urgent repairs  (called ‘qualifying repairs’ ) carried out by their landlord within a given timescale. This is called the ‘Right to Repair' scheme.

We will give you up-to-date information about this  scheme each year, including a list of contractors who are prepared to carry out the repair if we fail to do it.

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