Troubleshooting
& Reporting Maintenance
You may be able to fix common household issues swiftly and easily, with a little guidance. We’ve brought together a collection of answers to the most frequently asked maintenance questions, to help point you in the right direction.
What’s the issue?
FAQs by Category
General
All-time Top Question…
It’s easily done and has happened to the best of us…
If you are locked out of your property during office hours please give us a call. If you’re out-of-hours you will need to call a 24 hour locksmith to attend as the keys that we hold for your property are not available outside office hours.
Water
If you have water leaking from a fixture or fitting in the property, including the boiler, through your ceiling or roof, consider this as an emergency. Before calling for help, follow these steps;
- If the water is leaking from a fixture such as a pipe, tap or appliance, locate the stopcock valve in the property and turn it off as quickly as possible. This is usually found in a hallway cupboard, near the front door where the mains pipe comes in, under a sink or they are sometimes located in a cupboard in the communal hallway. If the water is leaking from the property above notify the occupant immediately and ask them to shut off the water stopcock valve. If there is no response from the property, then call your local Council on the number below, who will be able to assist you.
- Secondly, try to contain the water to prevent damage to the property. You can use pans, buckets or plastic boxes to catch water that is leaking until it stops.
- Call us within office hours or if we are closed, call one of our on call contractors in your location for assistance.
Electrical
Most modern appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers and fridges are ‘hard wired’ into the electrical circuit. This means they are switched on and off at the wall via a switch called a ‘fused spur’. At the switch, there will be a cover with a standard domestic fuse in it. If you find an appliance has switched off, it may mean that the fuse needs replacing. To replace the fuse, simply open the cover and replace the fuse, making sure to fit a new fuse of the same grade and type.
If replacing the fuse does not operate the appliance, let us know at the earliest opportunity on the next working day so we can send an engineer to fix it.
The same applies to small appliances that are fitted with a plug such as kettles and toasters. You must attempt to replace the fuse in the plug before you report it as faulty. Domestic fuses can be bought in most supermarkets and newsagent stores.
If you suffer a total loss of power to the property, firstly check to see if there are any problems in the area. Looking at neighbouring properties and streetlights will indicate if there are problems with the network. If you have access to a phone or internet, calling the power provider or checking their website might indicate a problem in your area.
If you think the loss of power only applies to your property, firstly check the circuit breaker fuse board. All switches should be positioned to ‘on’. If any are positioned to ‘off’, flick the switch to ‘on’ to remedy the fault. If the switch continues to flick back to ‘off’, this indicates a fault in the circuit. You should leave the applicable switch in the ‘off’ position and notify us at the earliest opportunity within the next working day.
If you have an old style fuse board that requires the changing of fuse wire, there is a handy video here to guide you though it;
Boiler
If you cannot get the heating to work or you have no hot water, firstly check that the boiler is switched on. The circuit breaker on the fuse board may have tripped so make sure to check this too.
If you have power to the boiler but it is still not working, the pressure may have dropped. This is quite normal, particularly if you haven’t used the heating in a while. Re-pressuring the boiler is simple, and there is a handy video here to guide you through it.
If after re-pressuring the boiler, you still have no heating or hot water, please let us know at the earliest opportunity during the next working day so we can send an engineer to fix it. If you need to re-pressure your boiler more than twice a year, then there may be a fault so let us know.
