SLAs - Property maintenance
The Barbican Estate Office (BEO) provides a repairs and maintenance service for the communal and structural elements of the residential blocks across the Barbican Estate. Services are delivered by staff directly employed by the City of London Corporation and, where appropriate, by approved contractors.
The objective of the service is to preserve the high amenity of communal areas, ensure the reliability and safety of building services, maintain appropriate environmental conditions within residential blocks, and ensure that installations and equipment remain compliant with statutory and safety requirements.
The service will soon include an overhauled and comprehensive planned preventive maintenance programme to provide a more systematic approach to asset management and compliance.
These will be undertaken as the need arises and will generally fall into one of the categories shown in the table below:
| Category | Description | Eligibility* |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | Repairs to the common water supply i.e., from the mains to individual flat stopcocks, together with drainage from common stacks to the main sewer | Common Areas, Leasehold and Tenanted Properties |
| Drainage | Routine clearance and de-scaling of roof and balcony drains (annual programme) and the clearance of blockages on a reactive basis | Common Areas |
| Carpentry | General repairs to external windows and doors and, replacement of same as necessary | Common Areas, Leasehold and Tenanted Properties |
| Balcony and Roof Repairs | Repair to balcony and roof felt and replacement of broken slabs | Common Areas |
| Water Penetration | Remedial repairs where penetration has occurred from common services / balconies / roofs | Common Areas, Leasehold and Tenanted Properties |
| Water Penetration | Follow up redecorations following water penetration | Common and Tenanted Properties only |
| Redecoration | Redecoration of common areas as necessary between cyclical redecoration programmes | Common Areas |
| Metalwork | General repairs to common doors, door closers, balustrades, and privacy screens | Common Areas |
| Glazing | Replacement of defective double-glazed, sealed units to flats eg cracks in external glazing, defective vacuum seals | Leasehold and Tenanted Properties only |
| Glazing | Other broken glazing and privacy screens | Common Areas |
| Fire Equipment | Annual (rolling programme) testing of all fire equipment. Repair and replacement, as necessary | Common Areas |
| Lightning Conductors | Inspection and repair of any defects | Common Areas |
| Security | Repair or replacement of defective equipment | Common Areas |
| Electrical | Repairs to electrical services and equipment | Common Areas and Tenanted Properties only |
| Entry-phones | Repairs to entry-phone systems and handsets | Common Areas, Leasehold and Tenanted Properties |
| Heating | Specialist repairs to heating mats, cabling and controls, repair and replacement of storage heaters where provided by the BEO | Common Areas, Leasehold and Tenanted Properties |
| Lift Doors | Painting of External lift doors | Common Areas |
| Ventilation | Repair and replacement of ventilation fans, window vents and cleaning of ventilation extractors | Common Areas, Leasehold and Tenanted Properties |
*Eligibility definitions
- Common Areas: those areas that are accessible to all residents
- Leasehold Properties: those flats that are sold on a long lease
- Tenanted Properties: those flats that are rented from the City Corporation on a short-term lease
These will be carried out in accordance with the types, eligibility (by tenure) and priorities described in the Residents’ Information Pack.
| Priority | Repair category | Response time |
|---|---|---|
|
Priority 1 |
Repairs necessitated by an immediate or imminent threat to the health, safety and security of residents, visitors or staff. This category includes such items as broken/cracked glass in communal areas, clearing blockages or repairing leaks, dangerous structure which could collapse, no electricity supply in tenanted property, no lights in shared areas, any loss of heating. |
Attend within four hours, complete within 24 hours |
| Priority 2 Routine |
All other works such as cosmetic repairs to communal areas necessitated by wear and tear or repairs undertaken under other categories or those required to restore communal facilities to the recognised high amenity standards. These would include decorations necessitated by other repairs and routine maintenance tasks. |
Complete within 20 working days |
PSOs or Resident Engineers are available on a shift basis 24-hours a day, 365 days per year. They will be responsible for the initial diagnosis of faults and will, where possible, carry out immediate repairs in the following services provided to residents:
| Service | Response times |
|---|---|
| Heating systems | Total loss: 24hrs Partial loss: three working days |
| Lighting - lamps | Where additional area lighting present: five working days Where no additional lighting present: one working day |
| Lighting - fittings | Where additional area lighting present: 20 working days Where no additional lighting present, temporary lighting will be installed |
| Ventilation system failure | Five working days |
| Entry phones | Five working days |
In addition, the PSOs are responsible for:
- the monitoring and adjustment of heating systems to include individual heating adjustments and overall heating outputs
- dealing with emergency call-outs, including lift trappings, and any follow up work required
- drafting works specifications in co-operation with specialist officers in PS
- supervision of specialist contractors when on site and as required
- the testing and inspection of fire and safety equipment and security cameras under an annual rolling programme
The Garchey Maintenance Team will provide a set work programme of scheduled maintenance tasks and a reactive repair service to residents when required.
Service/response times
| Service | Response times |
| Garchey reactive maintenance | 24 hours (working week only) |
| Garchet pit overflow | 24 hours |
| Scheduled Tasks | Frequency |
|---|---|
| Supervision of rolling programme of contract cleaning of 150 Garchey pits | Daily and quarterly |
| Maintenance, servicing, and inspection of associated plant | Quarterly and annually |
Garchey engineers will be available to attend to problems within flats between 8am and 4pm. (Monday to Thursday) and between 8am and 3.30pm (Friday). The Garchey Manager is also available ‘out of hours’ and at weekends in case of emergencies.
Lift maintenance and repair services will be undertaken by a specialist contractor who will:
- Provide lift repair and maintenance services with 24hr coverage, 365 days per year.
- Provide 2 lift engineers on site during normal working hours to carry out a rolling programme of routine safety and insurance inspections together with repair and maintenance tasks.
- Provide a response to lift trappings and lift failures. (The on-site Engineer will provide an initial response to 'out of hours' incidents).
- Carry out emergency repairs as necessary and arrange and supervise any follow-up action.
Service/response times
|
Service |
Response times |
|
Trapping |
60 Minutes |
|
Breakdown |
4 Hours |
Expanded staff training is underway so that more estate staff are able to assist and release passengers during working hours, with plans to extend into full OOH coverage.
Lifts will be monitored remotely through the Electronic Monitoring System (EMS), which provides information on service intervals, repair times and contractor performance. Incidents involving health and safety concerns or where persons are trapped in lifts will be dealt with as emergencies and have a (non-contractual) target response time of 30 minutes.
General lift failures, where alternative lifts are available, will be attended to within 24 hours, or earlier, at the discretion of the on-site Engineer.
| Task | Frequency |
|---|---|
| Routine safety, inspection, servicing, cleaning, lubrication, and adjustment of lifts | Monthly |
| Routine fire safety checks (for firefighting/evacuation lifts) | Monthly |
| Annual clean of lift wells, pits and machine rooms | Annual |
| Real-time electronic reporting provided after every inspection/visit plus monthly performance report. | As required |
| Replace defective parts at no extra cost (vandalism/misuse excluded) | As required |
| Insurance (LOLER) inspections and supplementary tests | Every six months |
The City Corporation, in its role as Landlord, will provide electric under-floor heating during the “heating season” which runs from 1 October to 30 April.
The system is designed to provide heating to 15.60C/600F where external temperatures are down to 1.70C/350F. If external temperatures fall below this level the target internal temperature target may not be reached.
Energy inputs need to be consistent to maintain the efficiency of the system. There is a standard 9-hour off-peak charge period, which is augmented with a further 4-hour charge at off-peak rates, as required.
This category covers minor projects undertaken to ensure compliance with current health and safety standards. i.e., replacement of emergency lighting batteries or relining of water tanks.