How do you maintain the grass and landscaped areas around my home?
Our grounds maintenance contractor looks after the grassed areas in your neighbourhood. They will:
- Cut grassed areas regularly throughout the growing season
- Regularly strim all grassed areas and edged borders 12 times per season
- Spray weed sprays on hard surfaces when needed
- Maintain shrub beds and borders
- Cut hedges, depending on the type of hedge and where it is
How often do you clean the communal areas in flats?
Communal areas in flats are cleaned weekly or fortnightly, depending on the contract we have in place. Our cleaning contractor will sweep, mop and dust general communal areas, stairways and lifts.
To help us keep your shared spaces clean, please:
- Be careful about how you dispose of household waste
- Keep security doors closed
- Report any repairs, damage or graffiti
- Do not drop litter or dump rubbish
- Keep proper control of your pets
- Tell us if you’re not satisfied with the standards in your neighbourhood
Your tenancy agreement also says that you must keep the communal areas in your block clean and tidy and clear of anything that might cause a hazard or block people’s access.
What should I recycle?
We should all reduce, reuse and recycle as much household waste as possible. This conserves resources, saves energy, and helps protect the environment by reducing the amount of rubbish in landfill sites.
You can use the green bins, food waste containers, compost bins and garden cuttings collection service to recycle your rubbish.
If you live in a block of flats, you can recycle your rubbish in the communal facilities that the council provides. Please be aware, if you put the wrong things in the recycling bins they become contaminated. This could lead to an increase in your service charge.
For more information on how you can reduce your household waste, contact the council’s Recycling Team on 01594 810 000 or email [email protected].
How should I decorate my new home?
If you are moving into a property that is more than 12 months old and that is poorly decorated, we will either:
- Offer you a voucher towards the cost of buying decorating materials of your choice
- Help with the decorating if you are vulnerable and cannot do it yourself
We may also carry out some of the preparatory work, such as stripping wallpaper, depending on the condition of the property and your personal circumstances.
If you have a voucher, you can redeem it at:
Crown Decorating Centre, Unit 14-15 Eastville Close, Eastern Avenue, Gloucester, GL4 3SJ. Telephone: 0800 123 4311.
Crown Decorating Centre will deliver your materials if you’re unable to collect them.
New-build properties should not be decorated for the first 12 months. If your home is a newly-built property, we’ll tell you when you can decorate it when you move in.
What are planned repairs?
Planned repairs are where we plan to carry out similar repairs or improvements to a number of properties in a road or neighbourhood at the same time. This is more efficient and so helps to keep our operating costs down.
If you report a routine repair to us, if it does not cause immediate inconvenience or present a danger to you or your neighbours, we may include it in a planned programme. We’ll let you know if we’re putting your repair in a planned programme within 5 working days of you reporting it to. We will also tell you when we expect the programme to start and end.
What are regular maintenance checks and works?
As well as gas safety checks, we carry out regular maintenance checks and works to make sure your home is safe and well-maintained.
Regular maintenance checks can include:
- Communal heating systems
- Communal lighting and electric car park barriers
- Communal smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms
- Communal door entry systems
- Communal fire alarms
Regular maintenance works can include:
- Painting the outside of individual homes or blocks of flats and maisonettes
- Painting communal areas inside blocks of flats and maisonettes
When maintaining, repairing or improving your home, we will:
- Ensure you have a contact for all work being completed in your home
- Let you know who will be carrying out the work
- Provide proof of identity before entering your home
- Do the work to a good standard
- Use good-quality materials
- Where possible, offer a choice of colour for kitchen worktops, door and drawer fronts
- Where possible, offer a choice of colour for the bathroom floor
- Do the work while you stay in your home
- Give you extra help if you have special needs
- Ensure you are not left overnight without electricity and essential facilities
- Inspect some of the work when it’s completed to help make our contractors provide a high standard of workmanship and you are happy with our service