Improving private housing
What we do
We are responsible for dealing with improvements to private housing within the borough. This involves giving grant/loan assistance for owners to help them with the cost of essential work and also taking enforcement action in the case of privately rented properties where landlords have not maintained correct standards. We also operate a Home Improvement Agency which, as well as providing assistance for general improvements and repairs, specialises in undertaking disability adaptations in all housing sectors.
We deal with all housing tenures except properties owned by the council's Housing department, where our involvement is restricted to making disability adaptations.
The services we provide include:
- Providing grants/loans for the repair and renovation of dwellings.
- Providing grants for adaptations in houses where the occupant is disabled.
- Responding to complaints from private tenants about their housing conditions and requiring landlords to make the necessary or improvements.
- Ensuring that houses in multiple occupation, (which are properties where several unrelated individuals live together), have sufficient amenities, adequate fire protection and proper standards of management. For more information see the Fire and Amenity Guidance downloads.
- Giving advice and grant assistance for improvements for energy efficiency improvements.
- Bringing long term empty homes back into use through grants and enforcement action.
- Dealing with overcrowding.
- Resolving various nuisance issues in rented properties such as blocked drains, disconnection of services and rubbish accumulations within the dwelling.
If you are a private tenant and believe that your landlord should undertake some repairs, we would ask you to approach the landlord first with your request before asking for our assistance.
For owner/occupiers, we are able to help when you are affected by a nuisance originating from another property but we are not resourced to provide advice on other more general building construction issues. In general, our response is limited to situations where we have enforcement powers.
When we deal with privately rented properties we also check that the landlord complies with their responsibilities under Gas Safety legislation. This requires the landlord to undertake an annual check of all your gas appliances using a CORGI registered engineer and provide you with a copy of the certificate. For more information, visit www.carbonmonoxidekills.org.uk.
Notice for tenants and landlords: Beko Fridge Recall
It has been brought to our attention that in a very small number of incidents, the defrost timer on a certain production range of Beko frost free refrigeration can fail and overheat. The models affected were manufactured between January 2000 and October 2006. The manufacturer is seeking to contact owners of these products to carry out a free of charge modification to the defrost timer.
If you think you may be affected by this issue, please read Trading Standards Institute's Beko Frost Free Fridge Freezers - safety notice to find out what your need to do.
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