Most repairs to your home are covered by North Star. However, in some cases, we may need to charge you for work that isn’t caused by normal wear and tear. These are called rechargeable repairs.
We’ll charge you if:
- The damage was caused by negligence, misuse, or criminal damage by you, someone in your household, or a visitor.
- The damage happened accidentally.
- You report an emergency repair but are not at home to give us access.
- You report an emergency repair but no repair is actually needed.
- You have made unsatisfactory alterations to your home.
- You miss two consecutive appointments for a day-to-day repair.
- Work has been done without our permission that now needs to be removed or fixed.
- We need to force entry to complete essential safety work, such as a gas service.
- A door is damaged due to forced entry (for example, by the police or a bailiff).
- You have lost your keys and we need to help you regain access.
- The cost of cleaning, decorating, or repairing your home is unreasonable when you move out.
- You leave household items or rubbish behind when you move out (including in the garden or loft).
- We’ll always let you know about any charge before we do the work and will try to give you a rough estimate of the cost.
- For emergency repairs, you’ll receive the bill after the work is completed.
- For non-emergency work, we may ask for payment before we start.
Why we have a recharge policy
We want to be open and fair about who is responsible for different types of repairs.
Your rent helps pay for our repairs and maintenance service, which benefits everyone. To make sure this is fair, we charge the cost of any avoidable damage or neglect to the person responsible.
If a repair is exaggerated as an emergency when it’s not, and this leads to extra costs, we may also recharge you for the additional expense.
By managing rechargeable repairs fairly and consistently, we can keep homes safe, well maintained, and costs fair for all our customers.
If you ever have questions about a recharge, or think you’ve been charged in error, please get in touch with our team. We’re always happy to explain how a decision was made and talk it through with you.