Maintenance Policy

• Purpose
• Legal Framework
• Background
  • How we identify maintenance
  • How we prioritise maintenance
• Housing ACT's Responsibilities
• Tenant's Responsibilities
  • Small repairs
• Housing ACT's Responsiveness to Repairs
  • Urgent Repairs
  • Priority Repairs
  • Normal Repairs
  • Planned Maintenance
  • Vacant Dwellings
• Appeals

Purpose

The purpose of the Maintenance Policy is to detail Housing ACT's requirements for maintaining public rental properties. This Policy aims to ensure that public rental properties are safe and secure, meet acceptable community standards, protect the value of public rental housing assets, and provide a consistent and equitable level of service within the available resources.

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Legal Framework

This Policy is consistent with the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (RTA ) relating to the responsibilities of the landlord (Housing ACT) and the tenant regarding the amenity and condition of the premises.

Refer to the Housing ACT Property Guidelines for information on:

• the quality and range of fixtures provided in and around Housing ACT properties
• the acceptable condition for the various features of an Housing ACT property

Refer to the Tenant Responsible Maintenance Policy for information on:

• what constitutes fair wear and tear - the responsibility of Housing ACT
• what constitutes tenant responsible maintenance (TRM)
• Housing ACT's requirements for the resolution of TRM.

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Background

Housing ACT recognises that maintenance of its properties is a top priority for tenants. As a landlord covered by the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, Housing ACT is responsible for maintaining its properties in reasonable repair so that they are a safe, secure and healthy place to live in.

Maintenance is a major point of contact between Housing ACT and its tenants. We use this contact as an opportunity to improve relationships with tenants and to improve their overall satisfaction with the housing and services we provide.

We are pro-active in the maintenance of our properties. Repairs are carefully planned and prioritised to ensure critical and essential work is completed first.
In maintaining our properties we recognise that they are a highly valuable public asset. We plan and undertake maintenance work to maintain their value as an asset and as a home for people in housing need.

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How we identify maintenance

Housing ACT identifies maintenance through:

• Tenant contacting the maintenance call centre
• Tenant contacting his/her Housing Manager
• Staff undertaking regular client service visits
• Inspection of vacated properties.
• Property Condition Audits

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How we prioritise maintenance

Maintenance that affects the health, safety or essential security of the tenant is undertaken first. We call this urgent, or priority work and it falls under the responsive maintenance category.

Housing ACT may alter maintenance response times to match the circumstances of individual tenants. Problems with a room heater for instance, may become urgent due to conditions in winter. The response to leaking taps may become urgent when a water restriction is in place. Other issues such as the age of the tenant or other household members, degrees of disability, even location, could also affect the level of response necessary to a problem.

Housing ACT has a backlog of maintenance on many properties that is not urgent or priority. When this maintenance is identified it is programmed to occur as funds are available. It is important that we are clear about the priority of work so that we can deliver the maintenance where it is most needed. Properties that are in the worst condition are generally repaired first.

We use our asset standards manual to help decide which work should be undertaken first, within the available funds. Housing ACT is working to a plan that will ensure all properties meet these asset standards and future maintenance can be either responsive or on a planned cycle of work.

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Housing ACT's Responsibilities

Housing ACT is responsible for:

• Undertaking repairs to ensure properties are safe, clean and fit to live in
• Maintaining properties in reasonable repair
• Maintaining and cleaning common areas on its multi-unit sites.

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Tenant's Responsibilities

Tenant is responsible for:

• Keeping the premises clean
• Any damage caused by him/her, members of his/her household or people he/she allows on the premises
• Notifying the landlord of any damage as soon as possible and doing what he/she can to avoid any further damage
• Leaving the premises in the same condition (as set out in the Property Condition Report completed at sign-up) at the end of his/her tenancy. Reasonable wear and tear is excepted.

When a property gets damaged, such as in a natural event like a storm or fire, or an unsafe situation arises, such as a large overhanging tree limb that may pose a danger, the tenant should ensure his/her personal safety. The tenant should do what he/she can to avoid further damage and contact Housing ACT to organise repairs.

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Small repairs

Tenant may fix minor repairs if he/she is able. For example:

• Nailing loose fence palings
• Re-screwing loose cupboard handles
• Gluing a lifted tile

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Housing ACT's responsiveness to repairs

Housing ACT organises its maintenance work into the broad categories of responsive and planned work. This helps us to meet the expectations of tenants to get critical repairs fixed quickly and make best use of our resources by planning all other work. We are committed to providing a high level of service when responding to repairs. We will:

• Attend to urgent maintenance in 4 hours
• Attend to priority maintenance in one week
• Give tenant clear and accurate information about when other repairs are planned to occur
• Endeavour to maintain properties to Housing ACT's asset standards as far as budgets and resources allow.

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Urgent Repairs

Urgent repairs are where there is an immediate health, safety or security risk or where the property will be further damaged if work is not carried out. Urgent repairs are defined in the RTA. Examples include:

• a burst water service;
• a blocked or broken lavatory system;
• a serious roof leak;
• a gas leak;
• a dangerous electrical fault;
• flooding or serious flood damage;
• serious storm or fire damage;
• a failure of gas, electricity or water supply to the premises;
• the failure of a refrigerator supplied with the premises;
• a failure or breakdown of any service on the premises essential for hot water, cooking, heating or laundering;
• a fault or damage that causes the residential premises to be unsafe or insecure
• a fault or damage likely to cause injury to person or property

If Housing ACT is unable to organise urgent repairs, the tenant may arrange to get the work done to a maximum value of up to 5% of the rent of the property over a year. Housing ACT will reimburse the tenant for reasonable costs.

Tenant will only be reimbursed when:

• Housing ACT was advised of the problem but could not arrange for it to be fixed in a reasonable time
• Tenant did not cause the damage
• The repair is done properly.

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Priority Repairs

A priority repair is work needed to fix a problem that is not urgent (or emergency), but that is causing significant inconvenience and could develop into a health, safety or security risk if not fixed promptly.

Priority repairs are completed within one week of Housing ACT notifying the Total Facility Manager. Examples of priority repairs include:

• hot water is slow to heat or external hot water service is leaking
• difficulty in lighting pilot light
• heater is not heating properly
• heater fan is noisy
• crack in glass of oven door
• part of stove is broken or not working
• toilet cistern has a slow leak
• toilet seat is loose or broken
• toilet pan is loose
• dripping or broken taps that are not gushing water
• taps that can't be turned on

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Normal Works (Scheduled Repairs)

Normal works are works that do not fall into the urgent and priority categories however still require attention. When normal works are identified they will either be repaired within one month or placed on planned maintenance programs depending on the situation and the extent of the works.

Below are some examples of normal repairs that will usually be repaired within one month:

• internal door handle is loose or fallen off
• renew silicone seal to splashback
• bench top is chipped or swelling
• wall tile fallen off
• re-grout wall tiles
• sag in ceiling without any water leak
• cracked roof tile or floor tile
• difficult to operate window
• difficult to operate gate
• supply an extra power point if required for safety purposes
• fly wire replacement due to fair wear and tear
• security or other door binding but still functional
  

Some examples of normal works that will generally be referred to planned maintenance programs include:

• new floor covering, except where saftey is an issue
• internal painting
• external painting
• replacing major components of bathroon or kitchen
• insulation
• hard wired smoke alarms

Normal repairs are completed according to their priority and as funds become available.

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Planned Maintenance

Planned maintenance involves repairing, or replacing, parts of a property that are below standard. Planned maintenance is either cyclic, or condition based. Cyclic maintenance requires work to be carried out at the end of an item's effective life. For example, external painting of a dwelling every seven to ten years. Condition based maintenance depends on assessing whether the condition of a maintenance item is below standard. Examples of condition based maintenance items include floor coverings, kitchens, bathrooms, wet areas and fences.

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Vacant Dwellings

Vacant dwellings will receive any required urgent, or priority maintenance and necessary cleaning before they are re-let. Other work will be included in planned maintenance.

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Appeals

A tenant's rights to have a properly maintained home is covered by his/her Residential Tenancy ACT. A tenant who is not satisfied with the standard of maintenance or condition of their home can have his/her case heard by the Residential Tenancies Tribunal who can order the landlord to make repairs.

However, before going to the Tribunal, the tenant should first try to resolve the issue with Housing ACT.

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