Unless you own a house, we're responsible for maintaining and repairing the outside of your home and the shared areas around it.
If you live in a maisonette or flat
If you live in a maisonette or flat, we're responsible for:
- The foundations, roof, outside walls and doors
- Windows and window sills
- Gutters, drains and outside pipes
- Garden walls and fences
- Pathways and steps
- Communal entrances and entry controls
- Clothes lines in shared areas
- Shared water tanks and cisterns
- Lifts
- Shared parts of the building, including staircases, passages and landings and any equipment or fixtures and fittings
- Replacing light bulbs and fuses in shared areas
- Maintaining any grass, trees or hedges in shared areas
- Getting rid of pests in shared areas
- Cleaning shared areas
- Providing rubbish bins
We'll also usually carry out repairs to shared facilities, such as:
- Shared TV aerials
- Door entry systems
- Fire systems
- Warden alarm systems
Maintaining these things will be part of our planned and major works programme. We plan this work several years ahead and will consult you about it.
Before we carry out planned work near your home, we'll write and let you know. But if you want to know more about what's planned over the next 5 to 10 years, contact us.
You're responsible for your own garden, including repairs to sheds or washing lines in it.
If you live in a house
If you live on an estate which has shared areas not looked after by the local council, we may be responsible for carrying out repairs to:
- Communal garden walls and fences
- Roadways, paths and steps
- Outside lighting which doesn't belong to you and isn't provided by the council
You're responsible for providing a dustbin (you may be able to get one from your local council).
More about your rights and responsibilities
Read our environmental services policy