Repairs and changes to your social housing
An Easy Read guide for social housing tenants to ask for repairs or changes to their home.
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In this guide, we explain how repairs and changes work for your social housing.
Social housing is homes that cost less to live in.
The government helps pay for social housing.
When you need repairs
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You have to tell the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) when you need repairs in your social housing.
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This includes emergency repairs.
An emergency:
- is a dangerous situation
- is something you don’t expect to happen
- can put your health and safety at risk.
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Emergency repairs can include:
- flooding from broken pipes
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- damage from a fire.
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You can ask for repairs on the eRepair website.
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You can also call the housing contact centre for support with repairs.
Follow the prompts to for ‘maintenance requests’.
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DCJ will work with you to plan the repairs you need.
When you want to make changes
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You can make some changes to your social housing without asking DCJ.
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For example, you can hang pictures on the wall.
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You need to ask DCJ before you make any bigger changes to your social housing.
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For example, if you want to:
- change the carpet
- build a fence.
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DCJ will send you a letter or email to let you know if these changes are okay.
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You can find out more in the Alterations to a Home Policy on the DCJ website.