In recent months, we have noticed an increase in calls to our emergency out-of-hours repairs service. Many of the repairs being reported through this service are not genuine emergencies.
A repair is only considered to be an emergency when it presents either:
- A risk of loss of life
- A risk of serious injury
- A risk of serious damage to your property, where the repair cannot wait until the office reopens.
If a non-emergency repair is raised out of hours, often a contractor is called out to a property unnecessarily, which incurs a cost. We want to ensure we are able to provide the most responsive and cost-effective repairs service for all our residents. It is therefore vital that our out-of-hours service is only used to report genuine emergency repairs.
An emergency repair includes:
- Leaks which cause internal damage and cannot be contained
- A blocked sewage treatment plant or a blocked toilet (if the property only has one toilet and the tenant has already tried to clear the blockage themselves)
- Flood
- A total loss of electricity or circuit failure
- Fire damage
- Insecure external doors or external doors which cannot be opened; broken ground floor windows which cannot be secured.
If you use the out-of-hours emergency service to report non-emergency repairs and a contractor is called out, we may recharge you for the costs incurred.
If you have reported a genuine emergency repair, this will be dealt with as quickly as possible. We expect tenants to remain in the property for 24 hours or until our contractor arrives, if safe to do so, and that access will be given to our contractors.
The contractor who visits may only do the necessary work to make your home safe. A further appointment may then be required to finish the repair.
Heating breakdowns
Please note that while a heating breakdown between the months of October and April is classed as an emergency, it is not considered to be an out-of-hours emergency. If you try to report a heating breakdown overnight, you will be asked to call our Customer Service Team on 0300 123 2250 the next morning to raise the repair. There may be some exceptions to this at weekends and Bank Holidays, depending on the time the heating breakdown is reported.
Reporting a heating breakdown in working hours will allow us to provide you with a better, more efficient service, as we will be able to ask our contractors to visit your property more quickly.
Between the months of October and April, we respond to heating breakdowns within 24 hours. The contractor who visits may only do the necessary work to make your home safe. A further appointment may then be required to finish the heating repair. If the heating is not working by the end of 24 hours, we will provide you with a temporary heater.
Between May and September, your heating repair will be raised as urgent, which means we’ll organise an appointment and fix your heating within 10 calendar days. Visit www.hastoe.com/heating-repairs for more information.
Reporting a repair
You can raise a repair at any time via MyHastoe, your online personal account. This is the best way to raise a non-emergency repair out of hours. Someone will call you back the next day to discuss your repair.
Further information about the best way to report a repair
Further information about what happens when you report a repair
For emergency repairs outside of our normal hours, please call 0300 123 2250
Our out-of-hour emergency call times are:
- 5pm on a weekday to 9am the following morning (Monday evening to Friday morning)
- All day during weekends and Bank Holidays
