What is happening
We’re replacing kitchens, bathrooms, boilers, central heating systems, and electrical wiring in council homes where the current facilities are reaching the end of their life span.
We’re upgrading council homes to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), which ensures homes are energy efficient, safe, and in good condition.
We know that making these improvements to your home will be disruptive, but we’ll make sure support is available where it’s needed during the works.
Who will get replacements
We’ll survey every council home. If your kitchen, bathroom, wiring, heating or boiler is worn out, we’ll replace it. Not all homes will get upgrades.
Home survey
We’ll survey your home with the contractors we’re working with.
We’ll go through any proposed works with you in more detail during the survey. You can ask us any questions or tell us anything we need to know, like any relevant medical conditions, or times and dates when you won’t be at home.
Once we have surveyed your home and decided it needs replacements:
- we’ll write to you with a date for when the contractor will start work in your home
- you’ll get at least 7 days’ notice of the date the works will begin.
You must confirm if this date is suitable or tell us of any times where you will not be available because of holidays, appointments, or other reasons, and ask for another date and time.
What replacements you’ll get
Kitchen replacements
Kitchen replacements will include:
- a stainless-steel sink and taps set into the countertop, new kitchen units, and worktops
- installation of a splashback above worktops and a stainless-steel splashback at your cooker space – a splashback is a layer attached to the wall to protect your kitchen walls from spills, stains or marks
- installation of (non-slip) vinyl flooring
- electrical rewiring, and repositioning of sockets if necessary.
This means there may be some changes to the layout of your kitchen.
If your kitchen is being replaced, the kitchen supplier will also visit your home to discuss the plan with you.
You’ll get a choice of two different colour schemes for kitchen drawer fronts, doors, worktops, and flooring. The splashback will match your worktop.
Depending on the layout of your new kitchen, we may need to reposition radiators and switch off your central heating during this time.
Bathroom replacements
Bathroom replacements will include:
- a new bath or shower with waterproof wall panels
- a new electrical shower unit
- a new handwash basin and associated pedestal
- a new toilet and attached cistern
- installation of non-slip vinyl flooring.
Where a specific need is identified, or where the size of the bathroom does not allow for a full-size bath, we may need to install a shower cubicle instead.
Electrical rewiring
The rewiring of your home will include:
- all new switches, sockets, light fittings, and back boxes (containers behind switches and sockets that hold wires)
- running new electrical cables throughout your home
- replacement of the fuse box (the box that controls electricity in your home), also called a consumer unit.
We’ll need access to all the rooms in your home, including under the floorboards. We recommend you’re not at home during the day while this work is being done.
If you have your own light fixtures and fittings installed on the walls or ceilings, we’ll need to remove these and replace them with standard light fittings. We cannot put them back.
If you want to keep your own your existing light fittings or fixtures, let the contractor know in advance and they will leave them aside for you. Otherwise, they will dispose of them.
Full central heating and boiler replacements
A full central heating system replacement will include:
- installation of a new energy-efficient combination boiler
- all new radiators and pipework
- a new thermostat.
We’ll need access to all the rooms in your home, including under the floorboards. We recommend you’re not at home during the day while the work is being done.
It may also be necessary to change the locations of your radiators to maximise efficiency of the system and reduce your running costs. We’ll let you know if this needs to be done when we survey your home.
If you’re only getting a new boiler, this should be a straightforward process with minimal disruption. However, we’ll deal with any issues if they occur when the new boiler is being installed.
Costs
There are no costs for council tenants to have kitchen, bathroom, wiring, heating, or boiler replacements. If your decoration, such as painting or wallpaper, is damaged during the work we’ll make a payment to help with redecorating costs.
Before the works begin
You must allow the contractors access to your property to carry out the works. Tell us about any times or reasons we cannot access your home, such as holidays or hospital appointments.
Make sure everyone in your home, including any visitors, knows the works are going on, and advise them to be careful.
Let us know when we survey your home if there are any elderly, infirm, or disabled persons who need special assistance or care elsewhere while the work is being done.
Before the contractor arrives, you must:
- remove all bathroom accessories such as mirrors, pictures, toilet roll holders, soap dispensers, soap dishes, or toothbrush holders
- move any small, portable kitchen appliances such as your kettle, toaster, microwave, bread bin, food storage containers, utensil holders or other items
- empty out any storage or furniture, like cupboards or cabinets, which we’ll need to move or get access to, and move small items and ornaments to a safe location.
Contact your liaison officer if you need help moving items or packing. Do not lift or move anything that would cause you an injury.
Contents insurance
The contractor carries all required insurance. However, we recommend you have your own contents insurance to represent you in any claim or dispute. We advise you to take all reasonable measures to protect your belongings from accidental damage.
If you’re a council tenant, you can join the AVIVA contents insurance scheme or make your own arrangements for home contents insurance.
What happens during the works
Access to your home
The contractor will arrive each day between 8am and 9am so all places we need access to must be clear.
You must allow the contractors access to your property to carry out the installations. If they cannot access your property at the agreed time, or there is no one at home, we’ll have to reschedule the works in your home. You may have to wait until we finish works in other homes before we can do yours.
All contractors and council employees carry identification (ID), and they must show this to you before they enter your home.
They can only work in your home between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, unless they have permission from you and the council to work outside of these hours.
During the work
The contractors will work through the day, and there may be times when you will not have access to cooking, heating, water, or toilet facilities.
They may need to lift floor coverings and remove and replace heavy furniture to allow the works to be carried out.
They will
- make sure any lifted floorboards are not left up overnight
- display all required warning signs
- screw down all lifted floorboards on completion of the works.
However, you take responsibility for carpets, laminated flooring or vinyl that is glued or nailed down and cannot be lifted by the contractor without damaging it. If you ask the contractor to lift it, the Council does not take responsibility for any damage caused to it.
They will protect your home as much as possible during the work with clean dust sheets and will clean up at the end of each working day.
You’ll have a contact person throughout the works who you can phone, and an out-of-hours emergency contact number if needed.
Always supervise children and pets while the work is in progress.
How long it’ll take
These are the timescales for how long each installation will take:
- 7 working days for full kitchen, bathroom, and rewiring
- 5 working days for kitchen and rewiring
- 5 working days for bathroom and rewiring
- 2 working days for a new full heating system
- 1 working day for a boiler-only replacement.
A working day is Monday to Friday and does not include public holidays.
These timescales are for guidance only and while we aim to finish within the planned timescales, it may take longer if we identify unforeseen works.
The contractor will make sure you are kept up to date on this at the end of each working day.
After the work is done
When the work has been finished, we’ll will inspect it to make sure they are completed to our satisfaction.
We’ll also complete a customer satisfaction survey with you. You can provide us with feedback on your experience of the process and the quality of the completed work.
Once we’re satisfied the works are complete and all snagging (renovations with small faults or unfinished jobs, like chipped paint) has been addressed, a Liaison Officer will visit to see if there’s been any damage caused to the décor of your home.
If there is, they’ll advise how much you will receive towards redecorating costs and will pay it directly into your back account. This can take between 5 and 10 working days from when they process it.