Minor repairs

Decorating your home

If you’ve just moved in, then you might want to personalise your home by decorating your walls, for example. Or perhaps you've lived in your home for a few years and fancy a change. You’re free to decorate your home as you wish, though please check with us first if you’re a London Living Rent, SmartRent or Intermediate Rent tenant.

DIY

If you’re at home, it’s tempting to do a spot of DIY such as painting or fitting carpets. But please take extra care with any projects that involve drilling into the walls or cutting or knocking through the fabric of your home because:

• You could damage essential services such as electrics, heating or water and put your family at risk.
• There might be asbestos in some homes – in Artex ceilings, floor tiles, soffits or flue pipes, for example. This is safe unless disturbed and we hold a lot of asbestos data about our homes built before 2000 (when asbestos stopped being used in housing) but it’s always best to double check before any work.
• There might also be lead in paint in some homes as this was commonly used in paints until the mid-1960s, with some usage until 1980. If the paint is of a good condition and not at risk of being damaged, there is not usually a risk. You are most at risk if you are removing existing paint coatings, stripping old paint using blow lamps or gas torches, or dry sanding old paint.

Wall fixings  

​The type of fixing you should use to attach items to walls depends on the construction of the wall and the weight of the item. Pictures and other light items can be hung on all types of walls using steel picture hooks or masonry nails. 

Always check for buried pipes and cables first using a detector (available from DIY stores). 

• ​Masonry (blockwork) wall
  Heavier items can be fixed using wall plugs and screws. The wall plug and screw should penetrate through the plaster or plasterboard, well into the blockwork.  
• ​Timber frame walls  
  For heavy items such as wall cabinets or bookshelves you should find the position of the timber frame behind the plasterboard and screw into that. The vertical timber studs are normally located at 600mm (2ft) centres and can be found using a detector. If the studs are not in a suitable position it might be necessary to spread the load by screwing a piece of wood between two studs and fixing onto that. 
• Proprietary partition walls
  Partition walls are not suitable for heavy items; however, they can accommodate relatively light loads, providing you use the right fixing device (available from DIY stores). Some proprietary partition walls are not suitable for any fixings – if in doubt, check with your builder.

Alterations or structural work

If you’d like to make alterations or substantial home improvements you will need our written permission. We can only give you this if this work does not create any hazards, future maintenance difficulties, or an impact on others.

Please contact us first to discuss your plans. We’ll ask for full details of what you'd like to do. We’ll either give you permission or let you know why you can’t make the changes.

If your home improvement includes changes to pipework or structure in your home, you will need to provide us with drawings/ full scope of work due to be carried out and the name of the contractor / company doing the work. 

Please note: We're currently pausing requests for permission for major/structural works from customers living in South and West while we review our policy and processes. This is to ensure we're able to deal with all requests in an efficient and fair way.

Improvements made without permission

If you make alterations to your home without asking our permission you must return the property to its original condition. If you don’t, we’ll carry out the work ourselves and charge you for the cost.