Improvements to your home
We want to make sure our properties are kept to the highest standard and your home is healthy, safe and secure for you to live in.
This is part of our commitment to ensure that all of our properties meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard – an agreed standard of good quality housing, which all local authorities and social landlords must have met by 2015 and subsequently the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing.
Planned maintenance
We carry out ‘planned maintenance’ on our properties each year. This is when items such as external doors and windows, central heating systems, kitchen units and bathroom suites are replaced when they are reaching the end of their useful life.
We will always write to you in advance to let you know all the details if your property is due to have any planned maintenance.
As part of this programme we involve our tenants in any decisions which involve improvements to their homes.
Cyclical maintenance
Each year we also carry out work that we consider necessary to keep our properties and equipment in good repair and working order.
This includes:
- Annual gas safety checks
- Checking large water storage tanks regularly to minimise the risk of Legionnaires disease
- Maintaining communal landscaped areas
- Painting external elements of Horizon properties
Can I make improvements to my home?
You don’t have to let us know if you are redecorating, but if you want to make any alterations or improvements to your home you need to let us know.
This can include:
- Fitting locks, including additional or replacements
- Installing a shower
- Replacing or moving fixtures such as lights, kitchen units, doors, taps or electric sockets
- Erecting garden sheds, fences, satellite dishes or other external structures
If you decide to move out of your property you must return it to its original condition unless otherwise told.
You may have the right to a compensatory payment for any alternations or improvements you have done to your property.