Maintaining Outdoor Areas
Our Grounds Maintenance Team maintain outdoor areas owned by GCH and follow a 4-week schedule. They are responsible for:
- Grass cutting and strimming between March through to November*
- Maintaining hedges and bushes between August through to February*
- Controlling weeds between March through to December*
- Litter picking as required throughout the year.
*Please note that scheduled dates are subject to change due to adverse factors outside of our control for example adverse weather conditions, nesting birds, health and safety reasons, or customers have allowed pets to use areas for toileting.
Please help us by:
- Keeping areas clear from obstructions such as garden toys, bikes, trampolines and other play equipment
- Keeping items tidy when not in use
- Picking up after your pets
- Keeping area free of litter
- Ensuring access points such as gates are clear to the outdoor areas
Our Estate Services Team help to maintain our communities and follow a 4-week schedule. They are responsible for:
Throughout the year:
- Checking communal waste areas and removing excess bags from bins*. This is so that they can be collected by the Council’s collection team
- Decontaminating recycling ready for collection by the Council*
- Completing litter picking of areas owned by GCH
- Checking and maintaining garage sites and compounds
- Recording and reporting any other issues back to the relevant GCH team
- Removal of hazardous items opposing a risk to health and safety such as needles and sharps
- Removal of graffiti
*Please note that we may recharge you for this service, if we find that you have caused the problem in the first place, such as dumping rubbish illegally. Find out more about recycling here.
The seasonal tasks are:
- Management of Moss and weeds between March to December*
- Gritting our Independent Living Sites when required
- Removal of fallen trees and branches in adverse weather.
Please help us by:
Cleaning Communal Areas
We know it is important to keep the communal areas around and leading up to your home clean and communal areas will be cleaned weekly or fortnightly. Our Cleaning Team are responsible for ensuring the indoor areas are kept clean and tidy.
Our cleaning team are responsible for cleaning:
- general communal areas
- stairways
- lifts
Including sweeping, mopping and dusting.
The team are also responsible for carrying out biohazard cleaning in communal areas when required.
Every 12 months our cleaning team will:
- Communal window clean
- Deep floor clean of all hard floors in blocks
- Carpet clean
- Oven cleans in communal kitchens
Please help us by:
- Keeping entrance and exits doors closed
- Reporting any repairs, damage or graffiti.
- Disposing of your rubbish responsibly
- Keeping control of your pets and cleaning up after them
- Keeping communal areas clear of obstructions
As well as this, your tenancy conditions say that you must:
- Keep the common areas of your block clean and tidy. This includes staircases, landings, entrance halls, lifts and bin areas.
- Keep the areas clear of anything that might cause a hazard or block people’s access.
With your help, we intend to keep communal areas as clean as possible. You can report any issues to us here.
Maintaining Communal Electrics
We are responsible for the maintenance of electrical items within communal areas and will ensure that:
- Emergency communal lighting is serviced every month by our in-house electrical division.
- External communal lighting is serviced every quarter by our in-house electrical division.
- If you see any lights flickering or not working as they should be then please call the repairs team and we will get our electrical team out to attend and repair.
- Communal door entry systems as well as access control systems are serviced every quarter by our in-house electrical division.
- If the communal doors are not locking correctly then please contact us. Please note that communal doors should not be wedged open as this compromises the security of the building.
- Communal electric wiring and supplies are tested and inspected every 5 years as recommended by BS 7671 electrical wiring regulations.
- Communal portable electrical appliances, in our Sheltered Housing Schemes, are serviced every 12 months, e.g. kettles in communal kitchens.
- Communal lifts – if your block has a communal lift than they are inspected each month and a thorough inspection carried out every 6 months.