The five stages → Holding
Holding and inspections
A held unit is visited on a fixed cycle and whenever the tenant reports something. The visit works to the same list every time, so that two visits can be compared.
The periodic visit and the list it works to
The visit is arranged in writing, with at least twenty-four hours’ notice and at a time the tenant has agreed to. It is not an inspection of the tenant. It is an inspection of the fabric, and the sheet it produces is dated, photographed and filed next to the sheet before it.
The list does not change between visits, which is the whole point of it. Damp is read at the same four points — the external corner of the main room, under the kitchen window, the bathroom ceiling, and the base of the party wall — with the same meter, so that a reading means something placed next to the last one. Seals to windows and doors are checked by hand. Extract fans are run and the pull is measured at the grille. Smoke and heat alarms are tested in front of the tenant, who is shown how to test them. Window ironmongery is opened and closed.
| Looked at | Recorded as | Acted on when |
|---|---|---|
| Damp at the four fixed points | a meter reading per point, dated | a reading has risen against the last visit |
| Window and door seals | a photograph of any gap found | the gap passes daylight or draught |
| Extract fans | pull at the grille and run time | the fan runs but the pull has gone |
| Smoke and heat alarms | tested in front of the tenant, date on the sheet | any alarm fails a test |
| Window ironmongery | opened, closed and noted | a window will not latch, or will not open |
How a reported repair is closed
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Reported
By email to the office address, or verbally at a visit and then written up by the office the same day. Either way it exists as a dated line before anything is arranged.
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Logged
Room, the description in the tenant’s own words, the date reported and a reference. The tenant is given the reference.
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Attended
A trade attends. The attendance date goes on the log whether or not the work was finished, because a part that had to be ordered is part of the history of the item.
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Parts
Where something is ordered, the order date and the expected date go on the log and the tenant is told both of them.
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Closed
The log line closes on the date a follow-up finds the work done, not on the date the trade left. Closing on the trade’s word is how an item comes back a month later as a new report.
Planned work, as against repair
Planned work is not repair and is not logged as repair. Decorating a stair, replacing a boiler that still works but is at the end of its service life, renewing a bathroom seal all the way round rather than at the corner that failed — these are scheduled between tenancies wherever the unit allows it, because a programme inside an occupied unit costs the tenant days and costs the office access it cannot control.
Where planned work has to happen with a tenant in place it is programmed exactly the way a refurbishment is: stages, durations in working days, and the dates given to the tenant in writing before anything starts. The builder on the opening page is the same arithmetic.
The certificates renewed during the holding period, and when each falls due, are on the compliance record.