Repairs
Touchstone
We’ve chosen to appoint Touchstone, a Places for People company, to manage our entire mixed tenure portfolio. As one of the UKs leading property management firms with a portfolio of over 20,000 homes, you can rest assured that you’re in safe hands. Aside from day-to-day tenancy management, Touchstone is responsible for coordinating and overseeing rental collection, repairs, maintenance, and responding to customer queries.
Affordable Rent & Rent to Buy properties
Touchstone provides a comprehensive repairs service to keep our properties in a good state of repair and ensure we meet all legal and regulatory requirements.
This service deals with 4 main areas of maintenance work:
• Responsive repairs
• Void repairs (repairs to empty properties)
• Planned maintenance
• Cyclical maintenance
As an Auxesia Homes tenant, you’re expected to keep your property in good decorative order and undertake any minor repairs yourself. Our team is responsible for keeping the structure, exterior and services of the building and its fixtures and fittings in good order.
Types of Repairs
EMERGENCY REPAIRS – ATTENDED TO WITHIN 24 HOURS.
This repair priority is used when there’s an immediate threat to the health, safety or security of you, your occupants or your property. Touchstone will aim to respond to emergency repairs within 4 hours. In some instances, a temporary repair will be carried out to make the situation safe and secure. Following this, arrangements will be made with you to fully complete the repair in an appropriate timescale.
ROUTINE REPAIRS – COMPLETED WITHIN 14 WORKING DAYS AND BY APPOINTMENT.
Routine repairs are for defects that can be deferred without causing serious discomfort, nuisance or inconvenience to you or your occupants, or long-term deterioration of the building.
ROUTINE REPAIRS – COMPLETED WITHIN 30 WORKING DAYS.
This category is for substantial repairs, where your day-to-day life is not significantly affected or the work needs a specialist manufacturer. A repair of this nature would normally be ordered after a Touchstone-appointed contractor has checked the problem and found that an item needs to be replaced in its entirety. This priority allows for better resource planning and programming of nonurgent, non-routine repair works.
PROGRAMMED REPAIRS – WORKS THAT HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AS COMMON TO A NUMBER OF PROPERTIES IN A GEOGRAPHIC AREA.
These are of a non-urgent nature and are able to be delivered collectively as part of an investment activity scheme. An example of a programmed repair would be a wholesale replacement of failed double-glazed units. You’ll be kept fully informed of the programme, including the extent of works required and timescales for delivery.
How to Report a Repair
You can report repairs at any time via the Touchstone customer portal (portal.touchstoneresi.co.uk/login).
A notification will be sent to your Property Manager who’ll ensure that the issue is escalated and monitored.
You can use the portal to check the status of the job and receive regular updates about ongoing repairs. If you’re struggling to use the customer portal, you may call your Property Manager or email auxesiaqueries@touchstoneresi.co.uk.
Rechargeable Repairs
Touchstone will actively seek to recover the cost of any repair that is not the responsibility of the landlord. Under the terms of the tenancy agreement, you’re responsible for any damages caused by you, a member of your household, or a visitor. This includes inaction relating to wilful damage, negligence or abuse.
Where a repair is identified and the defect is not a health and safety hazard, you’ll be given the opportunity to carry out the repair yourself at your own cost. Touchstone will arrange a visit to inspect the work to ensure that it has been completed to their satisfaction. Your responsibility for any rechargeable repairs will be identified at the point of diagnosis or initial inspection and their liability confirmed. Work to be carried out on your behalf will be confirmed in writing. Touchstone may require the cost of the repair to be paid for in advance of it being carried out. Auxesia Homes will exercise this right, except where we believe that a delay would adversely affect our interest in the property, health and safety is compromised (e.g. gas or electrical repairs), or where the vulnerability of you as the tenant is such that discretion is required.
Inspections
Inspections can be classified as either pre-inspections or post inspections. Pre-inspections are sometimes needed to accurately diagnose the reported problems and determine what work is required. Or to support a vulnerable tenant who’s seeking assistance on a defect.
