Since Monday 6 October - our repairs service has changed.

All of our tenants should have recieved a letter in advance, which explained in detail about the changes to our repairs service.

Over the last 12 months we have worked with a group of residents (our Maintenance Focus Group) to review our service. The conclusion was that we needed to change our contractors and improve some of our systems in order to make it easier for residents to report repairs and to ensure a better quality of works was carried out.

Since 6 October, all repairs are be carried out by two contractors:

• Day to day repairs -  are done by Mears Ltd
• Gas and heating related repairs are done by Village Heating Ltd

The change to two new contractors allows us to improve the service we provide our residents, for example, the new system allows more information about appointments and weekend availability in some cases.

These and other changes will be gradually introduced over the next few months. All tenants will be informed of any key changes.

If you are a Temporary Accommodation or Let Start tenant - these changes will not really affect you to any great degree, you will still need to report all repairs through the Temporary Accomodation Team directly, simply because the majority of Temporary Accomodation and Let Start properties are not owned by Octavia Housing and so we are not directly responsible for your repairs.

As your landlord we are responsible for:

• keeping your home in a generally good condition
• carrying out repairs that are our responsibility.

We own and manage nearly 4,000 properties. We recently undertook a survey which confirmed that the majority of our homes are in good condition. Some schemes however were identified in the survey as requiring refurbishment.

We have a planned re-investment programme which sets out works on homes with tenants in occupation on kitchens, bathrooms, central heating systems and electrical wiring. this programme will bring these properties to an Octavia Standard which is over and above the Government’s Decent Homes Standard within the target times set by government.