Repairs policy

From a customer’s view, the repairs service at Magna is crucial. It shapes our reputation and keeps customers safe, comfortable, and happy in their homes. It also helps us meet legal requirements.

This policy explains how we manage daily repair requests to ensure high- quality service, keeping homes safe and well-maintained. It connects with other maintenance activities like servicing and planned maintenance.

The policy aims to make it clear to both customers and colleagues what standards we follow in our repairs service, ensuring consistent and effective delivery.

Scope of this Policy

This policy covers homes, communal areas, garages, and commercial units owned or managed by Magna Housing. It also applies to homes we manage for other organisations, unless specified otherwise in the management agreement.

The policy applies to all types of housing. The repair services and responsibilities are determined by the current tenancy agreement or lease.

This policy and its standards apply to both our in-house team and any external contractors. External suppliers must follow this policy and its standards, whether working during office hours or after hours.

A responsive repair is a small, day-to-day repair that is reactive, not planned. It includes fixing single or multiple defects that can be scheduled and completed by appointment with the customer, usually taking no more than 5 hours.

Policy Statement

At Magna, we are dedicated to providing the best repairs service because we

know it’s highly valued by our customers.

We aim to deliver a repairs service that ensures the safety of our customers and colleagues, is efficient and effective, and gets things right first time.

We will also ensure our services comply with all important legal and regulatory guidelines, including the Regulator of Social Housing’s Decent Homes Standard.

Given the importance of this service, we will work closely with our customers to develop and define our standards, using their feedback to continuously improve.

Responsibilities

The Director of Customer Operations is responsible for all aspects of repairs at Magna, including developing and reviewing the Repairs Policy to ensure it meets all regulatory requirements.

The Head of Customer Experience and Home Services oversees the day-to-day repair activities, ensures accurate repair data, and reports on repairs management. They also ensure their team has the necessary skills and knowledge to work effectively and safely.

Customers are responsible for keeping their homes and gardens in good condition, reporting needed repairs promptly, and allowing access for repairs as required by their tenancy agreement or lease.

Our approach to delivering an effective repairs service

To provide an effective and efficient repairs service, we will:

Make it easy for customers to report repairs through various options, including digital, phone, and in-person.

Ensure customers can report emergency repairs 24/7, all year round.
Ensure all repairs are completed safely and to the required standard by qualified personnel, whether from Magna or external contractors.
Provide our teams with the necessary training and support to work safely and according to regulations.
Be transparent about which repairs we are responsible for, clearly defined in tenancy agreements and explained to customers.
Offer advice and resources to customers for repairs that are not our responsibility.
Charge customers for repairs needed due to deliberate or accidental damage, neglect, or misuse.
Focus on value for money in delivering repairs, managing supply chains, and procuring services, comparing internal and external costs.
Analyse repair spending trends to plan future maintenance and balance response and planned expenditures.
Ensure strong contract management and effective controls for services provided by external suppliers.
Deliver services that support our sustainability goals.

Types of repairs

We have three types of repairs:

Emergency Repairs: These are emergency issues that could harm health, safety, or security. We aim to respond within 24 hours to make safe and come back later if there are further repairs required.
Urgent Repairs: These repairs are not emergency issues, but need to completed sooner than 28 days, as they could escalate into an emergency if not fixed. We aim to respond within 5 working days.
Routine Repairs: These are standard repairs as per our commitment to you under your tenancy agreement. We will aim to respond within 28 days.

Other repair work includes:

Major Repairs: These are larger day to day repairs that are not part of our regular planned investment works. We classify these are repairs that take more than 5 hours and might take several days. We aim to respond within 3 months, prioritising based on urgency.
Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) Severe 1 Reports: Sometimes, we receive reports of serious hazards in our customers’ homes. When we receive these reports which may include severe damp and mould, a surveyor will inspect the hazard within 1 working day, if there is an emergency, we will make safe and may return later to complete the repair.

We aim to meet our repair timescales at least 80% of the time for urgent and routine repairs, and 95% of the time for Emergencies. However, during high demand periods (for example severe weather), response times may be longer. We will keep our customers Informed if we are unable to meet the timescales.

Communicating with customers

We understand the importance of keeping customers informed about their repairs. We will update customers when appointments are booked and on the day of the appointment. If repairs need to be cancelled or rescheduled, we will notify customers as soon as possible.

Helping vulnerable customers

We prioritise the well-being of our customers when categorising repairs. We consider individual circumstances, including vulnerabilities and health conditions, which may require quicker attention. For example, a routine repair might be classified as urgent based on the customer’s situation.

Governance, Performance Management and Review

This Director of Customer Operations will review this policy, and it will be considered every three years by the Strategic Board.

We report various performance measures related to repairs to managers and directors, covering service quality, cost, and demand. High-level performance indicators are regularly reported to the Board. We also report to customers at least annually on our repairs service performance, including against our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs).