Maintenance

We provide all our homes with the best possible energy efficient and fully serviced heating system. We try to repair existing systems where possible, to avoid long installations for our tenants. We also replace boilers at the end of their serviceable life. 

If you would like to discuss a heating upgrade with us, please email info@saffronhousing.co.uk or call 01508 532000.  

If you do not have central heating in your home and you or a member of your family has a serious medical condition which is affected by a lack of heating, you can apply to have this installed. 

We will assess each case on an individual basis. To find out more email info@saffronhousing.co.uk or call 01508 532000. 

We want to ensure that your home is energy efficient. One of the ways we can help is to make sure your home has suitable insulation.  

If your loft insulation is less than 20cm (about 8 inches) or you do not think that the cavity in your wall has been filled, email info@saffronhousing.co.uk or call us on 01508 532000 for more information. 

We carry out a Total Property Maintenance survey (TPM) on all of our properties every 6 years. The TPM survey allows us to spot property issues before they become a problem and deal with minor repairs quickly.  

The survey also means we can pick up, and budget more effectively for bigger issues, such as where we need to install new kitchens and bathrooms. 

The survey covers the following areas: 

• A full survey on the entire property, including areas such as gardens and loft spaces. 
• An HHSRS (Housing Health and Safety Rating System) assessment to make sure there are no category 1 failures. You can find out more by clicking here. 
• A Decent Homes Assessment - this is part of the Decent Homes Standard which is for social housing introduced by the government. It aims to provide a minimum standard of housing conditions.

We will let you know by letter when your home is due a TPM survey and will contact you by phone (or letter if that is your preferred method of contact) to organise a date and time to visit. The average TPM survey will take between 1½ to 2 hours and we will need to be able to access every area of the property. 

Our inspector will pass any immediate health and safety concerns to our repairs department on the same day. Non-emergency repairs will go to our repairs team once the survey is processed. 

We will look into any structural issues that might arise within your home. They could be: 

• Cracks to plaster and/or brickwork
• Sticking windows and doors
• Bulging or leaning walls
• Movement of walls
• Sagging roof lines and roof spread 
• Drainage issues causing subsidence 
• Uneven floors
• Leaning chimney stacks
• Movement caused by trees or swelling clay-based subsoil

If we identify any issues with the structure of the building, we will: 

1. Monitor it over a 12 month period by fitting steel discs on either side of a crack so that any movement can be detected. 
2. Check on this every 3 months over that 12 month period.  
3. If we identify any movement we will carry out repairs that are needed to rectify the issue. Sometimes, this will involve employing specialist contractors. 
4. After we have completed this process, we will keep monitoring the property to make sure the problem is solved.

If believe there are structural issues affecting your home or you have any questions, email info@saffronhousing.co.uk or call us on 01508 532000. 

Our Grounds Maintenance service makes sure that the green areas of your community are kept neat and tidy. 

We aim to cut the grass in your area every month during the summer and we will trim hedges, maintain ditches, and tend to flower beds on our land. We also inspect and maintain children’s play equipment, remove invasive weeds and nurture wildflower meadows. 

We have qualified tree surgeons to keep all trees on our land in good condition and will remove or prune any that become a nuisance. If we do have to remove a tree, we will make sure they are replaced with a suitable species that will suit the area. 

If you have a query about the grass cutting in your area or are worried about a potentially dangerous tree, contact our Grounds Maintenance Team at info@saffronhousing.co.uk or call 01508 532000.

Grounds Maintenance Service 

Our in-house teams are working hard to get the communal grass in your area cut. We are also concentrating on our priority hedgerows which may block pathways or cause a hazard due to being overgrown. Please be advised we always carry out a Wildlife Habitat Assessment before any hedges are cut during springtime.

Invasive, non-native plants

Now that spring is finally here, please be extra vigilant in the prevention of any invasive non-native plants spreading or overgrowing into your neighbours' outdoor areas or property. Damage from these plants can cause a nuisance to others, and you may incur a charge to cover the costs involved to contain the spread.

It is the tenant’s responsibility to ensure that their garden area is maintained and in good condition.

We may be able to offer a service if a change of circumstances affects a tenant’s ability to take care of their garden.

This is a onetime service which gives the tenant the opportunity to find an alternative solution to the problem, whether that be getting over illness, successfully applying for benefits to help financially, downsizing, finding a low cost gardener or help from other voluntary organisations.

For more information, contact your Neighbourhood Officer at info@saffronhousing.co.uk or call 01508 532000. 

In line with government guidelines, we base our service charges on the cost of providing that service to you and, they are separate from your rent. Service charges have been identified and linked to individual properties where appropriate. Some examples of what your service charge is spent on are: 

• Sewerage
• Lift operation and maintenance
• Communal window cleaning 
• Stairway lighting
• Door entry system maintenance
• Caretaking and cleaning
• Communal facilities within our Independent Community Living and Independent Community Living Plus schemes 
• Heating and/or hot water
• Estate charges (lighting and grounds maintenance)

We hope you will be satisfied with the level of service charge you are paying. If you disagree with any part of your service charges, you can contact us to talk it through and we will do our best to resolve your query. If you are unhappy with our response, there some other things you can do.

Tenants

If you have a query about the level of rent or service charge you are paying or the amount it has increased, you may be able to apply to the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). You can contact them by clicking here. If you have a concern about the collection of your rent or service charge, their calculation or how this information was communicated, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service by clicking here.

Leaseholders

If you are a leaseholder or shared owner and are dissatisfied with the level of rent or service charge you are paying, you will find further advice on this on the Leasehold Advisory Service website by clicking here.

Alternatively, you may be able to apply to the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to dispute the reasonableness of the service charges or the increase of the service charges. The option to seek independent legal advice is also available. You can contact the First Tier Tribunal by clicking here.

We clean all of the gutters in tenants' homes. Read our help sheet on how to book your gutter cleaning, what happens next and the process.

Read our help sheet on gutter cleaning here.