Covid-19 and staying safe

Your safety is our first priority. Our repairs staff are following government guidance while working in your home to keep you and them safe, and to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

If you are worried about having repairs staff or contractors in your home or if you have other concerns or questions, you can contact us on 020 7974 4444 or contactrepairs@camden.gov.uk (this email address cannot be used to report repairs).

Staying safe and well

When you request a repair, we will ask if you or anyone you live with has COVID-19 symptoms (high temperature, a new continuous dry cough, or a loss or change to your sense of taste or smell) or has had them in the last 10 days. The information you give us will stay on record for 60 days from the date that you call us.

How we will keep you safe

Any council officer or contractor who comes to your home will be following strict guidance from the Government and our public health team to keep you and them safe, and to prevent the spread of Covid-19. They will:

• Wash or sanitise their hands regularly and wear any protective equipment needed to work safely in your home.
• Only enter rooms where works are happening (they will never use your toilet) and will aim to keep 2m away from you and anyone else in your home.
• Use personal transport whenever they can (car, bike, walking) to get to work and if they use public transport or a shared vehicle, they will wear a face covering.
• Before they start work, contractors will sign to confirm that they are fit for work (that they don’t have any Covid-19 symptoms or live with anyone who does).

How you can keep our staff safe

• Contact us or our contractor if you or anyone you live with has had a positive Covid-19 test or symptoms in the 10 days before your appointment or the 10 days after your appointment.
• Keep 2 meters away from staff and contractors whenever you can. If possible, stay in another room while they are working.
• Continue to wash your hands regularly with hot water and soap and for at least 20 seconds.
• If you or anyone in your household has symptoms and have not taken a test, we strongly recommend you arrange a test at gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test or by calling 119.

Our team need to know if your repair is an emergency, essential or non-essential repair.

If you report a repair as an emergency and it isn’t, our repairs staff will not complete your job and you will have to book another appointment.

Emergency repairs

Emergency repairs are when there is an immediate threat to your (or other residents’) health, safety, security or to your home. We will attend emergency repairs within 6 to 24 hours.

Sometimes a temporary repair will be carried out to make the home safe and secure, and the full repair will be completed later. Emergency repairs include:

• Suspected gas or carbon monoxide leak
• No gas
• No drinking water
• No heating and hot water (during winter)
• Total loss of electrical power
• Sparking power sockets or electrical fittings
• Serious water leaks or burst pipes
• The only toilet at home is blocked
• Dirty water coming up through plug hole, toilet or any drains
• Unsafe doors or windows 
• Badly damaged ceilings, boundary walls or roofing
• Blocked rubbish chute
• Fixing stair lifts
• Freeing anyone stuck in a lift

Essential repairs

Essential repairs are when there will be a risk to you, your home or your neighbours’ homes if the problem is not fixed. We will attend essential repairs within 20 working days.

Sometimes another visit is required to complete the repair if special parts are needed. Essential repairs include:

• Leaks that can be contained
• Plumbing blockages
• Doors and windows that are stuck or jammed (for example fire doors, in properties when vulnerable residents live)
• Front doors and kitchen doors that are damaged
• Missing or damaged door closers
• Damaged front or back doorframes
• Front doors and kitchen doors that are damaged
• Windows that cannot be locked and is on the ground floor, or any floor that has children
• Window jammed open
• Replacing glass in windows or doors after a break in (with ref. number from police / payment)
• Partial loss of lighting in bathrooms with no natural light
• Flush on toilet
• Noisy / not working shower pump
• Immersion heater unless property has a boiler
• Pressure – low running drinking water
• Plastering, patch work after a serious leak
• Cracked sockets
• Bannisters and handrails
• Roofing

Non-essential repairs

Non-essential repairs include problems that need fixing but aren’t causing serious discomfort or inconvenience, and are not likely to lead to further damage. We will attend non-essential repairs within 20 working days.

Non-essential repairs include:

• Blown double glazed unit – if your glass is broken or cracked, please call us immediately
• Inside doorframes – please call us if it is your front or kitchen door
• Windows above ground level that do not lock, where the window can be shut securely and where there are no children or vulnerable residents at risk in the property
• Plastering – unless patchwork after severe leak
• Dripping tap and minor repairs to taps such as replacement washers
• Water pressure issues where your home has low running hot water
• Noisy pipes
• Partial lighting loss in rooms where there is no natural light to bathroom
• Extractor fans, where your bathroom/kitchen already has an alternative method to ventilate, such as a window
• Tiling
• Pest control

Useful to know

• Blockages at home
• Think before you flush
• Do I have a leak?
• Understanding water pressure
• Need extra support during a power cut?

We are legally required to ensure that gas safety requirements are met. 

Tenants are responsible for the maintenance for their own appliances such as cookers.  The Council is responsible for carrying out annual inspections on internal heating systems and a 5 year gas carcass test on communal heating systems.

I think I can smell gas

Report it on  0207 974 4444

Do not:

• turn any electrical switches on or off
• smoke or vape
• use any naked flames

Do:

• open doors and windows to vent the gas from the property
• turn off the gas supply at the Emergency Control Valve (usually next to the gas meter) if it is safe to do so.

If in doubt, it is safer to leave the property.

Find out about carbon monoxide poisoning and what to do if you think someone is suffering from it.

Further information videos

I think I can smell gas
Safety at home

Over the winter, the housing repairs service receives a really high number of calls reporting faulty heating.

There could be many reasons for issues with your heating, but most problems don't need a repairs callout at all and are simple issues you can fix yourself.

Avoid waiting on the phone or for an appointment you don’t need. If you have a problem with your heating, always make sure that you complete this checklist before requesting a repair:

Requesting heating repairs checklist

1. Is your room thermostat on? If you have one it should be set at around 22 degrees.
2. Do you have a timer? If you have one it should be set to 'heating on'.
3. Are your radiator valves open? Open up your radiator valves to full on every radiator in your home by turning them anticlockwise. Thermostatic valves or older wheel-head valves can be turned quite easily by hand.

If you’ve completed the checklist

…and you have heating, but not to every room

If you’ve completed the checklist and you have heating but one or more of your radiators aren’t working properly, report it online at camden.gov.uk/camdenaccount

…and you still have no heating at all

If you’ve completed the checklist and you still have no heat to your home, between 1 October and 1 April, this is an emergency. Call us on 020 7974 4444 option 3 then 1 from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Outside of these hours, call 020 7974 4444. We will be with you in between six and 24 hours.

If you’re an enhanced tenant

If you’re registered as an enhanced tenant (you are 65 or over, you live in sheltered housing, you or someone in your household is in receipt of a care package) and you have any problems with your heating, call us right away.

Call 020 7974 4444 option 3 then 1 from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm and 020 7974 4444 outside of these hours.

Heating rebates

Claim a heating rebate

This rebate applies only to Camden tenants who are on communal boilers,  not leaseholders.

Tenants can claim if they have had no heating, hot water or bulk gas  for more than 3 days. The maximum claim is for 6 months.  It takes approximately 20 working days for the request to be processed.

We are not responsible for any damage to or loss of fixtures and fittings including:

• furniture
• carpets
• clothing
• other household items such as the contents of  your fridge or freezer

This is usually the case even if it is linked to a repair that we are responsible for. Therefore we strongly recommend that you take out home contents insurance.  To help you, we run a home contents insurance scheme. 

Contact your ward housing team.

Please refer to the tenants' guide on page 90 for responsibilities in regards to Repairs.

Improvements

We are not responsible for any repairs that tenants do to a property and are classed as an improvement, for example additional electrical sockets, aerial sockets and mixer taps.  It would be your responsibility to maintain improvements and alterations.

Recharges

Rechargeable repairs are those that tenants are responsible for,  for example holes or other damage to internal doors, damage to kitchen units and worktops. 

You can pay the council to do the repair, do the repair yourself or pay someone else to do it.  

Here is a list of some of the re-chargeable services to tenants.

Camden is responsible for maintaining the structure of the building  leaseholders live in and for communal areas around the estate.  Any non-communal repair inside your home is your responsibility. 

Please refer to this guide on page 16 for a list of repairs responsibilities.

Camden's responsibilities

• Maintain, repair and renew the estate/building and provide services including a district heating system where relevant.
• Maintain the structure of dwellings including the roof, damp proof courses and window frames.  
• Maintain the common parts of buildings.  This may include a caretaking service where a leaseholder pays for this in their service charge

Leaseholder’s responsibilities

Maintain the property including:

• All fixtures and fittings within their property (kitchen cupboards, baths, sinks, showers, toilets, taps etc.)
• Glass in windows (including the putty or seal), front/back door and frame and window and door furniture such as handles and locks.  However note we are currently replacing leaseholders front doors for free when doing FRA works (30 min fire door set)
• Tanks and pipe work that relates solely to the property such as a leaking waste pipe, trap etc.
• Unblocking of toilets/wash hand basins/baths/kitchen sinks/waste pipes/traps inside in leaseholders property
• The heating system within their property if not connected to a communal heating/hot water system.
• Floors, stairs, ceilings, doors, woodwork, partitions inside the property.
• All internal decorations to their property.

Lockdown and damp and mould

We know that because many people have been spending more time at home as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be a number of residents who have damp or mould for the first time, or whose damp or condensation issues have got worse.

If you have damp or mould, please get in touch with us as soon as possible so that we can help you.

Report damp in your home

What is damp?

There are three main types of damp – condensation, rising damp and penetrating damp. Condensation is the most common type of damp. Rising damp and penetrating damp are rarer and caused by structural problems, particularly in some of our older buildings. Rising or penetrating damp always needs to be resolved by our repairs team.

Contact us to report the following signs:

• Flaking plaster
• Peeling paint and wallpaper
• Damaged skirting boards
• Flooring lifting up
• Crumbling bricks
• A musty smell
• Damp patches on ceilings or walls
• Damp patches that darken when it rains.

What is condensation?

Condensation is moisture that forms water droplets on cold surfaces: on windows, in bathrooms, kitchens or in corners of rooms, or behind cupboards and wardrobes. Cooking, baths, showers and drying clothes inside can add extra moisture to the air, making more condensation.

There are ways that you can manage or improve condensation in your home – and small changes can make a big difference:

Ventilate your home

• Open your windows at least once a day to let fresh air in and let warm moisture out.
• Close kitchen and bathroom doors when cooking and using the bath or shower, even if you’ve got an extractor fan.
• Open windows when using a tumble dryer or make sure the hose goes outside.
• Clear and clean your vents and extractor fans. Make sure your vents are not blocked by furniture and regularly dust vents and extractor fans. 
• If you have trickle vents on your window frames, make sure they’re in the open position.

Minimise moisture 

• Use the thermostat to control your heating – it will help you to heat your home more evenly, using low level heating all day, rather than quick blasts. This should also reduce your heating bills.
• Cover your pans when cooking to stop steam from escaping and switch on your extractor fan
• Dry washing outside or put it in the bathroom, open the window or turn on the extractor fan and close the door
• Wipe condensation off in the bathroom or kitchen with a towel, cloth or a squeegee every day to help prevent mould from growing.
• Move furniture away from walls and radiators.

Find out more

There is more information in the 'keeping your home free from damp and condensation' leaflet below. If you’re concerned about damp in your council home, contact us as soon as possible so we can help.

Download leaflet 

In this section we will share data relating to housing repairs service and improvements works.

As a borough we are constantly looking to improve how we use data and information.  Our aim is to be more open and transparent and use the information to make better decisions as well as offer a more personalised customer experience through all our channels. 

Access Camden's planned works and improvements data.

Open Data Camden is the place for the public, researchers and developers to access, analyse and share information about the borough.

Property Customer Service Performance

Case Management Monthly Performance

Last month 138 cases have been handled within the property services, 82% of those were answered within ten working days, listed are the top three trends of cases in this area.  Orders completed by the in house team for the month of November were 5689.

Monthly Telephony Performance

*Return to all types of repairs

Camden has 552 lifts around the Borough which are serviced and maintained regularly by specialist lift contractors, to ensure that breakdowns are kept to a minimum.

We aim to repair breakdowns as soon as we can, and once a repair has been logged an engineer will attend within 3 hours, or as soon as possible. They will do their best to get the lift working again straight away, but sometimes if the repair is very complicated, or parts need to be ordered and delivered, this is not always possible.

If your lift is not working for 3 days or more, we will write to you and tell you when we expect to have it fixed by. If the repairs are delayed for any reason, we will write to you again to let you know. 

If you are vulnerable or need support whilst the lift is not working, please contact your  Neighbourhood Housing Officer. 

We understand the inconvenience caused by lift breakdowns so please be assured that we work hard to fix them as soon as possible.

Please note that the date given for the lift to be put back in service is an estimated date given by the lift contractor and may change due to circumstances outside our control.

Current lifts awaiting repairs