The Barnet Group recognises the value of residents and communities engaging with us in different ways, including providing feedback and interacting in an ad-hoc way, volunteering their time, expertise, and skills to be actively involved in the design, delivery, and scrutiny of our service delivery, and participating at the highest level of governance of our organisations.

Repairs is an area which is important to our residents. It is the main reason residents contact us and is the key driver of overall tenant satisfaction. The policy sets out The Barnet Group’s approach to managing and completing Responsive Repairs for tenants. The original version of the Responsive Repairs Policy was written in 2020 and was therefore due for a refresh.

This policy has been reviewed and refreshed using insight from resident surveys/ complaints, colleague feedback, regulatory requirements in line with the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) and Consumer Standards and best practice research from other local housing organisations. We wanted to ensure that there was greater clarity for existing sections and that it covers areas which are missing from the original policy (e.g. pest control).  We are providing a repairs service to residents in an increasingly challenging economic climate. This means we must deliver repairs in a prioritised way which ensures repairs that present a risk or hindrance to residents are completed in a quicker timeframe. To support this we have reviewed the existing repairs priorities, the type of repair under each priority and the associated target timeframes for completing the repair. We have tried to ensure that the repairs which would have the biggest impact or pose the greatest risk to residents are prioritised. When prioritising repairs, we will want to take into account the circumstances of tenants and household members so that we prioritise repairs and adjust the delivery of our repairs service where this is needed such as for residents or household members who are vulnerable. We have updated the information about how we will assist vulnerable residents in the policy.

The key changes made to the policy which we recommend residents focus on when reviewing and providing feedback are:

  • Updating the types of repairs which fall into different priorities and the target timeframes assigned to each priority
  • More detail on which types of repairs are The Barnet Group’s responsibility and those which are the tenants’ responsibility
  • Making the existing sections including fencing, damp, mould and condensation and vulnerable tenants clearer
  • Adding distinct sections to the existing policy which cover access, flooring and pest control.

This policy applies to The Barnet Group, and specifically its tenanted homes that are managed or owned by Barnet Homes and Opendoor Homes (referred to collectively as ‘The Barnet Group’ within this policy). We welcome your feedback on the policy and invite you to review and provide comments for us to take into consideration.

Thank you for taking the time to review our updated Responsive Repairs Policy. We would like to make sure that it is clear, easy to understand, and covers all of the information that residents would expect to see.

Click here to download the drafted refreshed Responsive Repairs Policy.

Click here to complete the resident feedback survey – please complete it by 21 February 2025.