Repair timescales
Emergency (High)
Urgent (Medium)
Non-urgent (Low)
Planned
Cyclical
Responsive Service
The Operational and Development Centre offers a borough-wide response service for emergency, urgent and non-urgent repairs. Based at Roway Lane in Oldbury, our craft employees will carry out emergency/urgent repairs, such as a burst pipe and faulty door locks etc as a priority.
Emergency Repairs > Priority HIGH
We aim to respond to emergency repairs and complete or make safe within 24 hours. An emergency is where action is required to remove a danger to the property, occupants or its visitors, or is a risk to the health of someone.
The following would be classed as emergency repairs:
- Total loss of electric power
- Unsafe lighting socket or electrical fitting
- Total loss of water supply
- Total or partial loss of gas supply
- Blocked flue to open fire or boiler
- Total loss of heating
- Blocked or leaking foul drain, soil stack
- Toilet not flushing (when there is no other toilet at the dwelling)
- Insecure external window, door or lock
- Total loss of lighting
- Partial loss of power, but only when it is a danger to health and safety (essential equipment such as a stair lift or nebuliser)
- Internal leaking or burst pipes (only when the tenant cannot control the leak and there is a danger to the property and or belongings)
- Burst tanks or cylinders
- Locked out (may be chargeable)
- Blocked toilet (only if toilet inside property)
- Blocked sink, bath or wash hand basin (in multi-story blocks only)
- Blocked refuse chutes in multi-story blocks
- No central heating (between 31st October - 1st May)
- Loss of water heating (between 31st October - 1st May)
- Gale damage, fire, flood or explosion
Should you have any queries about a particular repair, you should contact 0121 569 6000.
Emergency repairs out of office hours
Sandwell Council provides an Emergency Call Out service that deals with emergency repairs outside of normal working hours, including weekends and bank holidays.
If you have an emergency repair when our offices are closed you can contact us FREE on 0800 844 112
*Any misuse of the Emergency Call Out service will result in a charge to the occupier for the visit made.
The Emergency Call Out service only deals with emergencies, and does not respond to repairs which can be safely left until the following day. The team's usually only do temporary repairs or 'make safe'.
Permanent repairs are left for normal working hours, so please do not expect the job to be fully completed during these hours.
Urgent Repairs > Priority MEDIUM
We will respond to urgent repairs within 3 working days. The following would be classed an urgent repair:
- Partial loss of electric power
- Partial loss of water
- Blocked sink, bath or wash hand basin (Except in multi-story blocks)
- Taps that cannot be turned
- Rotten timber flooring or stair tread
- Door intercoms not working
- Extractor fans in kitchens or bathrooms (only when no window in the room is present)
- Glass replacement (where security is affected)
- Leaking pipework or waste pipes
- Loss of water heating (between 30th April - 1st November)
- Leaking roofs
Small Non-Urgent Repairs > Priority LOW
We will respond to small non-urgent repairs within 25 working days. The following would be classed as small non-urgent work:
- Plaster patch
- Floorboards
- Internal door repairs
- Air vents / bricks
Large Non-Urgent Repairs > Priority PLANNED
The following would be classed as large non-urgent work:
- Privacy fencing
- Renewal of guttering and down pipes
- Renewal of kitchen units and sinks
- Renewal of baths or complete suites
- Renewal of front or rear doors and/or frames
- Renewal of internal doors and/or frames
- Plastering
- Damp proof course work
Cyclical
This is when work is carried out periodically to prolong the life of the building component and avoid either expensive repairs or a complete breakdown.
The following would be classed as cyclical repairs:
- Gas Safety check
- Electrical Safety check
- Communal decorations to low-rise properties
Sandwell Improvement Programmes
Our improvement programmes are a process whereby homes are improved in order to reduce the amount of day-to-day repairs. Properties can benefit from a range of solutions and each home is assessed individually to determine what improvements are required to be carried out.
This is one of the most cost effective ways of keeping properties in a good state of repair.
The council is committed to investing in homes, communities and neighbourhoods across Sandwell and have announced a number of improvement programmes that will help improve the condition of council housing including:
- Internal improvements; kitchens, bathrooms, central heating, rewiring and external work. These works are undertaken following repairs inspections that recommend full replacement of one or more facilities due to being beyond repair or uneconomical to repair.
- High-rise improvements; external refurbishment of blocks including improvements such as external insulation, new roofing and communal area redecoration, as well landscaping and parking improvements.
- Door programme; replacing wooden front and rear doors to composite doors, on an estate by estate basis
- Energy efficiency programme; where funding is available, we will plan and deliver specific projects to improve the efficiency of our housing stock, this can include installing energy efficient heating systems and external wall insulation where homes are of solid wall construction.
Whenever improvement programmes are due to take place we will send out the details beforehand to tenants included on specific programmes.
There will be other programmes that may have an impact on you but we will get in touch with you before any work takes place to provide you with information and help you prepare for any works.
For more information and details about the investment programme as they're announced, keep up to date at www.sandwell.gov.uk or look out for information being sent to you at home.