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Repairs

Repairs in your home

Contact us in the first instance if something goes wrong in your home. Our team will assign each repair to DIO’s maintenance contractors Amey or VIVO. Their role is to keep your home maintained and fix any repairs required.

Emergencies

Contact us straight away. Call our call handlers at the National Service Centre at any time, they work 24/7 to cover emergency situations. If it’s a fire, gas leak or a major water leak, take emergency action immediately.

If there is a fire in your home

  • Make sure everyone leaves the home straight away and gathers a safe distance away
  • If it is safe to do so, close internal doors on your way out. This will help slow the progress of fire and spread of smoke
  • Don’t attempt to put out the fire yourself, unless you can do so quickly and safely
  • Dial 999 as soon as possible, and if your home is behind the wire, please follow local station orders

Once the emergency services have been informed, and you and your family are safe, contact the National Service Centre Repairs Team and we will arrange for a home visit, as well as provide you with advice and support, finding you alternative accommodation if needed.

If there is a major water leak in your home

  • Turn off the water supply at the main stopcock (this may be located under the sink in the kitchen, in the bathroom, hall or under the stairs)
  • Once the main water supply has been switched off, drain the system by turning on all the taps
  • If the leak is affecting the electrical system, turn off the electricity supply at the main fuse box

Contact the National Service Centre to report the leak. We will help you with what to do next and organise for a Amey / VIVO engineer to come to your home

If you smell gas inside or outside your home, if you suspect you have a gas leak or you think carbon monoxide may be coming from a gas appliance in your home, call the Gas Emergency Services line straight away on 0800 111 999 (24/7 emergency line).

Take the following steps immediately:

  • Put out any naked flames
  • Open all doors and windows to let air into your home
  • Do not switch any electrical items on or off – leave all switches in your house alone
  • Do not light a match, use a lighter, smoke, or do anything that may cause a flame to ignite
  • Evacuate your home and call the Gas Emergency Services on 0800 111 999

Emergencies are incidents which:

• Threaten imminent risk of injury to you, your family or anyone else
• Present a high risk of extensive damage to your home or the environment
• You have called out the emergency services or a utilities company for emergency support

For all emergencies DIO’s repairs and maintenance contractors, Amey or VIVO, will be with you as soon as possible to carry out a temporary or permanent repair, make things safe and prevent further risk.

What information do I need to log a repair?

The more information you can gather before contacting us the better. It will help us correctly diagnose the fault and send the right Amey or VIVO engineer so we can fix it for you.

Here are some examples of the type of questions we will ask:

How extensive is the damage? Where is it located? Do you have photographs to help us properly assess this? Have you tried to prevent it from happening?

Are both radiator valves turned on? If there is a thermostatic valve and is it turned to maximum? Is only part of the radiator heating up? If so, is it top or bottom?

Is the boiler functioning? Is the pilot light on? Is the water tank hot? Is the room thermostat to maximum? Do you know where your central heating pump is? Is it running? If it is, you’ll feel a slight vibration if you put your hand on the boiler. Is the boiler displaying any fault codes? If so, what are they? Do you know how to reset your boiler? Have you tried resetting your boiler?

Is it your house alone that is affected? Are any neighbours experiencing the same problems? Have you contacted the local water provider?

Where is the leak coming from (pan or cistern)? Can you stop the leak? Is the pan cracked? Is it the only toilet in your house? Is it a handle or chain flush? What floor is the leaking toilet on (ground or first)?

Is it only your property that has lost power? Do your neighbours have power? Has the main switch tripped? Does resetting the main switch solve the problem?

If your lights are working then check the consumer unit/fuse box, as the fuse for the sockets may have tripped (the electrical circuits are usually separated between upstairs and downstairs). Have you tried another socket? Some sockets also have additional fuses built in, e.g. cooker sockets. Is it the item or the switch that is broken?

What type of window is it (double/single glazed)?  What’s wrong? It is a broken sash cord/catch/stay, broken glass, rotten frame, condensation in double glazing? Which floor is the affected window on? What is the window made of – wood/uPVC? Will the window open or close? Can the window be secured?

Is your home secure? Which door is faulty? Which part of the door is faulty (e.g. hinges, handle, lock, letterbox…)  Do we need to gain access?

Is the door sticking/jamming? Is the door damaged? Is the latch/lock defective? What is the door made of – wood/uPVC? Do the keys operate the lock? Is the door frame damaged?

Is it the whole drawer/front of drawer/bottom of drawer? Does the draw have steel or plastic runners? Is the drawer sticking?

Is it a floor, wall or larder unit? Is the cupboard double or single?

Once booked, when will Amey / VIVO complete my repair?

There are three types of repair categories:

An Amey or VIVO engineer will be with you within 2 hours to carry out a temporary repair, make things safe and prevent further damage. Once the situation is safe, we’ll book this in for a permanent repair

An Amey or VIVO engineer will be with you as soon as possible, or within 48 hours.

An Amey or VIVO engineer will be with you within 12 working days to make a permanent repair.

How do you decide on the response times?

When you log a repair with Pinnacle Service Families, we will work with you to gather as much information as possible about what has gone wrong.

The response times we work to are set in our contract with Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). We assess each case, taking note of any exceptional circumstances into account in line with DIO criteria. We work in a slightly different way if you have vulnerable family members living in the home.

Here are some of the ways we prioritise cases depending on circumstances:

Boilers and heaters. If you have a young child (a child under the age of 2), elderly person or someone with disabilities living in your home we will always treat loss of heating or hot water as an urgent case.

If there are no vulnerable members of your family living in the property, and you have other ways to heat your home or have alternative access to hot water, such as an electric fire, immersion heater or electric shower, we will class your repair as routine during the summer months (2nd May – 30th October).

Please note the following:
– Young children are defined by DIO as children under the age of 2
– Summer months are defined as 2nd May – 30th October
– Winter months are defined as 31st October – 1st May