Repairs & Improvements

Repairs

HFI Direct

Reporting a repair to HFI
This information is for you if you are an Islington council tenant and you are not in a TMO, Co-op or PFI property. If you live elsewhere, go to the main Repairs page to find the relevant information.

How to report repairs

If you are Deaf and you wish to report a repair please click here

HFI Direct office opening hours
Monday-Friday from 8am-8pm and Saturdays from 8am-12noon.

Telephone
Repairs, including for communal areas, should be reported to HFI Direct on freephone 0800 694 3344. (Communal repairs may also be reported to your area housing office.)

The freephone number is for reporting repairs, gas servicing appointments and service charge and rent payments.

Calls to the freephone number from a mobile phone are charged. If you use a mobile it will cost less to ring 020 7527 5400.

Telephone calls to and from HFI Direct may be recorded for training and quality purposes.

When you call HFI Direct our Call Agents will:

• Give you their name
• Correctly record your name, address and contact details
• Order your request correctly the first time
• Confirm the order number for your repair request
• Give you technical help and advice for larger repairs, if you ask us
• Agree a convenient appointment for our contractor to carry out the repair (or for larger repairs an appointment for a Maintenance Surveyor to visit you at home)
• Offer appointment slots: Monday to Friday at 8am–12pm, 12pm–3pm, 3pm–6pm, 6pm–8pm and on Saturdays at 9am–1pm
• Send you a repair receipt on the same day. For routine repairs this will confirm your scheduled appointment time
• Give you the opportunity to comment on our service by sending you a questionnaire with a freepost envelope. You should fill this in once the repair has been done.

If you fail to keep your agreed appointment, HFI may charge you. For more information about missed appointments click here.

You can also report a repair in the following ways:

Email or fax
Email to repairs@homesforislington.org.uk or fax to 020 7527 5440.

Please do not report emergencies by email or fax. Always report emergencies by telephone.

Please allow up to 24 hours for your email to be processed.

Text
07786 202 892. This text number is for reporting repairs only.

Please do not use texting to report emergencies. Always report emergencies by telephone.

Please allow 24 hours for your text message to be processed.

Area Housing Offices
You can make use of the free telephone at the Area Housing Offices to report a repair to HFI Direct.

Online repairs
You can report repairs to your home on our online system. This online system cannot be used for reporting communal repairs.

You can report communal repairs online by using the Communal Repairs Online form.

What happens after you report a repair?
We will give the repair a priority category depending on how urgent it is. Sometimes we will need to visit you to look at the problem and see what work is needed. We may need to include replacements such as new baths, kitchen units and doors as part of our planned maintenance programme.

Target response times for repairs:

• Emergency - The contractor will respond within 2 hours. This category is used when there is an immediate danger to a person or serious risk of damage to the property. The contractor will call and make the area safe within two hours.
• Urgent - The contractor will respond within 24 hours. This category covers repairs that affect a tenant’s day to day living.

• Right to Repair - The contractor will respond within 3 working days. An appointment will be given (NB: relevant repairs under the Right to Repair legislation will receive a higher priority).

• Routine - The contractor will respond within 20 working days. An appointment will be given. This category covers repairs that need to be completed before the next scheduled programme of work.

We will assess all repairs to decide who is responsible for them. If you call us out for a repair that you are responsible for we may charge you. To find out what repairs are your responsibility please read our repairs and maintenance policy.

Out of hours emergency repairs
Sometimes emergency repairs are needed outside office hours. If a repair is very urgent (for example, it is a danger to health and safety or security) and cannot wait until the next working day, you can call our emergency service on 0800 694 3344. We may carry out a temporary repair until we can carry out a full repair during normal working hours.

When our contractor calls to complete the repair they will:

• Call within the time we have given you for emergencies or call on the agreed date and time of your appointment
• Use protection for your property and clean up the work area
• Leave a card asking you to contact us at HFI Direct to make another appointment, if they call and you are out
  

Homes for Islington repairs pledge
We have introduced a pledge to tenants that our contractors will complete certain types of repairs to your home within 25 working days of us ordering the job. If our contractor does not complete the work within this time, you have the right to ask us to appoint another contractor to do the job.

The pledge covers most of our day-to-day repairs. To find out more about the repairs pledge you can download a leaflet.

Missed appointments compensation and recharge scheme
This scheme compensates Homes for Islington residents for missed non-urgent appointments. For details visit missed appointments and recharge compensation scheme.