Maintaining your home

Kāinga Ora will:

• make sure your home is clean and tidy when you move in
• keep your home in good structural condition - we have an ongoing maintenance programme for all our properties
• do any urgent repairs as quickly as possible
• check that your smoke detectors work
• repair normal wear and tear as soon as possible.

Requesting maintenance

Urgent repairs are problems that affect your health and safety. We'll fix these within 4 hours, wherever possible.

Urgent repairs can include:

• bad water leaks, no hot or cold water.
• issues with your toilet, shower, basin or sewage. Blocked or overflowing drains.
• gas leaks or gas not working.
• power not working.
• security issues like a broken exterior door, lock or window.
• fire safety, broken smoke detectors, clear ways to exit in an emergency.

If any of these apply, please contact us on 0800 801 601 and select Option 4 – repairs and maintenance.

You can request all other repairs through MyKaingaOra. Its quick, easy, and lets you track the progress at any time.

If the work isn't urgent we'll get a contractor to visit within 10 working days to check what is needed. They may decide that the job needs to be done as soon as possible or that the job becomes part of our planned maintenance programme. Often it makes sense to do some repairs, like painting or upgrades over several homes at once rather than separately. We will work with you on the best fix.

Doing my own maintenance repairs

You don’t need to call us if you want to do small repairs like tightening screws and changing light bulbs, but we can help if you are not confident doing them yourself or don't have the right tools to do the job safely.

To make sure our homes meet safety standards, we will check any work you complete yourself. If it doesn't meet our standards and contractors have to redo the work, you may have to cover the cost.

Poisons, asbestos and lead-based paint

Some of our older houses were built with asbestos products and/or painted with lead-based paint. These products are safe if they are in good condition.

We have strict procedures for dealing with these products and use tradespeople who are used to dealing with them.

If you see any damage to something that may contain asbestos or have lead-based paint call us.

Modifying a home for disability

If you are a Kāinga Ora tenant and you have a disability or mobility need that require modifications to your home, get in touch to talk about how we can help. Contact us

Tradespeople

Contractors that work for us are bound by a Code of Conduct. This requires them to:

• contact you to agree a time for the repairs to be done - unless the job is urgent in which case we would assume you would be home
• leave their name, address, phone number, date, time and reason for calling if you are not home when they call
• show you their identification before entering your home
• leave your house safe, clean and tidy at the end of every work day, and remove their rubbish
• respect your privacy and treat your home and possessions with care
• be appropriately dressed and polite to you at all times.

You can help by:

• being home at the agreed time or giving us plenty of notice if you're not going to be home
• moving furniture and personal items that may be in the way
• keeping children and pets out of harm's way.