Emergency repairs

• Out of hours emergency number
• If you think you have a gas or carbon monoxide leak
• Repairs Policy and Repairs Policy Easy Read

What is an emergency repair?

An emergency repair is something that is likely to cause immediate risk to property or persons if not attended to immediately.

When you contact us to report a genuine emergency repair you know that we will complete the repair or make safe within 24 hours from receiving you repair request (including an out of hours emergency repair).

Examples of an emergency repair include:

•  Extensive mould in multiple rooms, structural damp, vulnerable occupants (children, elderly, respiratory illness)
• Total loss of power, lighting or heating and hot water. 
• Internal leaks that cannot be controlled 
• Blocked or leaking foul drain or soil stack, or a toilet not flushing when there is no other toilet in the property. 
• A stairlift failure. 
• An insecure external window, door, or lock.
• Electrical hazards.

This list is by no means exhaustive and in most cases when you report an emergency repair we should be made aware of your individual circumstances, for example, if you are at risk or vulnerable and receiving extra care and help.

Our office opening hours are 08:45am-5:15pm, Monday to Friday

Telephone our out of hours repair line team on: 0800 141 2194

Out of hours emergency

Please note that the following system is only for use outside of office hours and is not monitored during the day. 

If you need to report an emergency between 8.45am and 5.15pm, Monday to Friday, please call the office number: 01329 824 771

If you need to report an emergency repair outside of our office opening hours or during a bank holiday, please telephone our emergency out of hours telephone number: 

• Text EMERGENCY to 07860 098627. The on-call officer will receive your text and call you back for more details.
• We also have an out of hours emergency voicemail system; you can call 01329 824747 and leave a voicemail for the out of hours officer to action. Both of these numbers go straight to the on-call officer.

Please note that if you report your emergency repair outside of office opening hours which could not be reasonably classified as an emergency, we will charge you the extra costs of doing the work outside office opening hours.

What to do if you smell fumes or smoke/carbon detectors are activated

If you think you have a gas or carbon monoxide leak:

• Turn off your gas meter.
• Open all windows and doors
• Do not smoke or touch switches and call National Grid: 0800 111 999

• Turn off all sources of ignition.

• Put out naked flames, including cigarettes.

• Leave the property if you do not feel safe and call the National Gas Emergency Number: 0800 1119

Useful tips

Don't:

• Don't block air vents - air vents are positioned for air to circulate, which mean that oxygen allows appliances to burn correctly. Carbon monoxide poisoning may occur if air vents are blocked.
• Don't sleep overnight in a room containing a gas fire or back boiler.
• Don't use a gas fire and/or a back boiler at the same time as an extractor or decorative fan - fans can interfere with the safe operation of some gas appliances.
• This will be identified during your annual gas safety check, and may result in the fan or appliance being disconnected.
• Don't remove smoke and carbon monoxide detectors or batteries from detectors

Do:

• Do allow the engineer access to your home – it could save your life.
• Do report any faults or problems immediately to your local repair team.

Repairs Policy

More details on housing repairs, timescales and planned maintenance can be found in our Repairs Policy (538 KB).  We also have a Repairs Policy Easy Read (187 KB) to summarise the process.