Heating & hot water simple checks you can do

If you experience problems with your heating or hot water there are a couple of simple checks you can do:

• Turn up any room thermostat
• Turn up all radiator valves to max
• Press the reset button on your boiler if you have one
• Check that you are in credit if you have a token/payment meter

If you find that your heating fault has resolved itself before the engineer attends please telephone and cancel your repair request so we can send the engineer to another emergency.

Please be mindful that if you are reporting full heating or hot water failures when there is just a problem with an individual radiator, this will divert engineers away from tenants who may not have any heating or hot water such as elderly tenants and tenants with small children.

We need to prioritise our service and if you are found to have falsely exaggerated a fault to receive an urgent engineer visit, we may recharge you for the callout.

Frozen pipes

1. To prevent frozen pipes:

• Try to keep your heating on (even at low temperature) in all rooms where this is possible.
• Regularly run your taps, particularly the tap(s) nearest the stop cock to ensure a regular flow of water through your pipes.
• Check the location of your stop-cock or sure-stop and check this is working.
• Please make sure you take the sink plug out.

2. If your pipes are already frozen:

• Please keep the tap closest to the stop cock or sure-stop on so you will know when the water flows again.
• Ensure your heating is turned on.
• Check the water flow regularly and that there are no leaks or burst pipes within the property. If there are, please turn off the water supply straight away and report this to us on 0345 604 1472.

3. If you experience any leaking pipes:

• Please turn off your stop-tap or sure-stop and report this to us on 0345 604 1472.
• If it is safe to do so, please isolate your electricity at the consumer unit/fuse board. This is the box which contains your trip switches. If it is wet please do not touch it.
• If you can, please contain any leaks using buckets.

4. If you are going away during a cold period for any length of time, please turn off the water and leave the heating on at low temperature.

5. If the mains water supply to your property is frozen we may not be able to assist you. You may need to contact your water supplier for further advice but please do not hesitate to call us if you need any advice or assistance.