Home improvements and adaptations

Keeping you safe and comfortable in your home is our top priority. One of the ways we achieve this is by investing in your home to keep it to a modern standard through our planned programme of improvement works. The video below shows one customer's experience of having her kitchen refurbished as part of planned works in her home...

Customer Kitchen Refurbishment

Before any planned work starts

The process of improving your home will start with a detailed survey carried out by one of our specialist contractors. Each home will be surveyed individually to identify any improvements that need to be made.

Our contractor will then let you know what proposed works are needed and discuss the various options that may be available.

We recognise that not every home is identical, so not everyone’s home will need the same level of work completed. This means that your home may not receive the same work as that of your neighbour.

We encourage you to ask questions and raise any issues you may have regarding the work with the contractor, so that you are happy with the plan of action before any work is carried out.

As with any contractor visiting your home, please make sure you ask for identification while you ask the person to wait outside. If you’re ever unsure, please give us a call on 0800 678 1221 and we will be happy to double check it for you. Do not allow anyone into your home if they do not have any identification.

During the works

We will make sure that:

You are given a start date and a completion date for carrying out the work
Your home is left in a clean and tidy condition at the end of each working day
You are left with a working system overnight including cooker and toilet (if kitchen and bathroom works are taking place)
We supply cardboard boxes (where required) which can be used to store any personal belongings while the work is completed
We will respect your home at all times

For peace of mind, you will have the contractors contact telephone numbers for both day time and out of-hours emergencies.

While we carry out this work, we would be grateful if you could:

Allow access to your home during working hours to complete the works
Move any personal items away from windows that are due to be replaced
Keep children and pets away from the area, so that the work can be completed safely
Inform us if you have any questions or concerns

What improvements are carried out?

Electrical check

Following the electrical test, if we identify that your home only requires minor changes to improve the electrical system, these will normally be completed on the day. If a full electrical rewire is needed, our contractor will agree a plan with you to replace all electrical cables, switches and sockets, however in most instances we only may have to replace the consumer unit and fit smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

External painting

The first thing we do is carry out a survey to your building. This is where we review what work has been done previously and identify what needs to be included as part of the new project. Areas that will be surveyed will be parts of the building that were previously painted so will be repainted again.

This work can include:

Any timber elements, such as, windows, fascia’s, soffits, etc
Any painted render or painted brickwork
Cast iron gutters and down pipes
Communal gates, fences, etc

Elements that will not be painted would be items such as:

Galvanised gates and fencing
Customer’s own fencing, etc
PVC windows
Render or brickwork that was not decorated previously

Kitchen replacement

After the initial survey, we will discuss and agree with you the layout of your new kitchen. We will produce a plan which will show the position and number of kitchen units, lengths of worktop and where your own appliances, such as your fridge, freezer, etc., will be fitted within the kitchen. If after the survey you decide to purchase new or additional appliances such as a new oven for example, please contact us so that we can ensure it fits within the design. We will leave you a copy of the plan for your personal reference.

We will also give you a choice of:

Five colour choices for kitchen units
Five colour choices for worktop finishes
Five types of door and drawer handles
Five colour choices for wall tiles. (These will be fitted into three rows of tiles above the worktop and six rows above the cooker)
Five colour choices for vinyl floor covering
Two choices of wall paint (white and magnolia)

Once the design has been finalised, we will ask you to sign it off, so we can then order your kitchen units from the supplier.

Bathroom replacement

If our initial survey recommends that your home needs a new bathroom, we will:

Install a complete modern bathroom suite in white
Offer you three wall tiles these will be fitted into two rows of tiles around the bath, we also fit tiles up to the ceiling to the end of the bath for a shower to be fitted and one row of tiles as a splash-back to the wash basin
Give you a choice of three types of coloured vinyl floor coverings
Give you a choice of the full range of wall paints offered by our specialist paint supplier

Heating installation

To improve the heating system in your home and help reduce your heating bills, we will either install a gas central heating system - subject to the availability of a gas mains, or fit high efficiency electric storage heaters.

Gas central heating

When we install a gas central heating system, we will either replace the whole heating system or we will replace your gas boiler only. The new boilers that we use are ’condensing boilers’, which are modern, efficient and should reduce your heating costs over time. In addition to this, all radiators, whether they remain or are replaced, will have thermostatic radiator valves fitted. This will enable you to control the temperature in individual rooms by setting the amount of heat given out by each radiator.

Electric storage heaters

If we replace your electric heating system, we will fit new storage heaters, which are both modern and efficient, and make the best use of the economy electricity tariff. All electrical wiring and the consumer units that need replacing will be replaced at the same time, ensuring your home is kept safe and warm.

Insulation

To improve the insulation level of your home, we will fit an additional insulation package if it is needed. This will help to reduce energy costs further and will consist of laying insulation into your loft space to a minimum depth of 300mm. If your home has a cavity wall we will, where possible, inject the wall with cavity insulation foam. We will need access to your loft to be able to complete this work.

Windows and doors

We will visit to survey, inspect and measure the windows and doors in your home that are to be replaced. You will have choice over the colour of the door and the design. The windows will be replaced in line with current planning regulations.

Re-roofing improvement

Normally when we carry out this type of work, we will re-roof the entire roof of your home. This involves fitting new timber battens, roofing felt and new tiles or slates to match the existing covering.

If you have a flat roof, we will lay new roofing felt and install roof insulation, if required, to a depth to match the current Building Regulation Standards. Whilst we carry out the work, we will also complete any additional works where they are required, such as:

Making sure the existing chimney is safe by re-building or re-pointing the brickwork as necessary
Fitting new PVCu (plastic) fascia, soffit and barge boards
Fitting new guttering and down pipes
Fitting additional loft insulation to a depth to match the current Building Regulation Standards

This type of improvement work will require our contractor to install a scaffolding system and is necessary to carry out the works safely. We will ensure that you are able to get into and out of your home while the scaffold is in place and that any satellite dishes or television aerials that you may have are kept working.

Timescales

We aim to keep disruption to a minimum during all of these works and have agreed the following timescales with our contractors. As with all works, unforeseen events may mean these timescales need to be extended:

Electrical check – 1 day
Doors – 1 day
Windows – 2-3 days
Central Heating – 4 days
Storage Heaters – 4 days
Bathroom – 5 days
Kitchen – 10 days
Roof single property – 10 days
Roofing – 10 to 14 days (dependent upon the size of your home)

On completion of the works

We aim to provide a 5 star service and will send you a survey to make sure you are happy with the work carried out, 5 being happy.

Home adaptations

If you need changes to be made to your property to improve your comfort and independence, we may be able to help.

If you rent a home under social or affordable tenancy, we can fund and carry out certain types of property improvements, known as 'home adaptations', to help if you have a disability or long term health condition.

If you are a leaseholder or own your home, you may be able to get support for making changes to your home from your local authority. If you live in Suffolk County Council area please read about our Home Improvement Agency.

Our home adaptations policy

Because we have limited funding available to make property improvements, we assess applications against our home adaptations policy to ensure fairness and consideration of individual circumstances.

We also consider the scale of the changes needed. Minor adaptations, likely to cost less than £1,000, can often be carried out as part of our normal repairs service for tenants. Major adaptations (over £1,000) require an assessment from an occupational therapist to ensure that the requested changes are appropriate and meet your individual needs. We will also carry out our own appraisal of the requested changes on your home. We will make a decision and inform you after these reports have been received and assessed.

If you are unsure of weather the adaptation would be classed as minor or major please contact us first who will advise you.

As part of the service we also offer further help such as access to Health and Wellbeing activities (for example, mental health, falls prevention, seated exercise). This could help prevent a fall in the future or could help you manage a health condition and live more independently with less pain. The Home Adaptations Co-Ordinator may be in touch with you about this further assistance.

How to make an application

Minor adaptations

If you believe that the change you need to your home is likely to cost less than £1,000 such as grab rails, you can simply request this as a repair booking or contact us.

Major adaptations

If the changes you need are likely to cost more (£1,000), please contact your Local Authority or Occupational Therapist.

(Please note if you are unsure of whether the adaptation would be classed as minor or major please contact us first who will advice you.

As part of the service we also offer further help such as access to Health and Wellbeing activities (mental health, falls prevention, seated exercise etc). This could help prevent a fall in the future or could help you manage a health condition and live more independently with less pain. The Home Adaptations Co-Ordinator may be in touch with you about this further assistance.

Find out more

Carrying out your own home improvements

If you want to make alterations or improvements to your home, you may require our agreement first.

Most often we are happy to agree to improvements, but there are some exceptions. Details of the types of improvements you can do without our approval and ones we have to agree to can be found here.

We won’t agree to improvements if you only have a licence to occupy or an agreement to rent your home for less than a year. We will also not give our agreement to changes if your rent and service charges and any other charge due under your agreement are not paid up to date.

There are some types of work we will only consider for our home ownership customers, due to their own rights and obligations to fully maintain and repair their home.
If you own the freehold to your home you will not normally need our permission to make improvement, unless you have a loan from us, but sometimes permission is needed for changes to the outside of a home. This is to protect the look of an area and might be because of planning rules. You can find details of any restrictions on the freehold transfer or property title from the Land Registry.

If we do agree to improvements being done, we may attach conditions to this, which you will need to ensure you follow. It may include things like:

Making sure anyone doing the work has the right professional qualification
Taking reasonable precautions to keep yourself, your household and the public safe
Having the right approval from other areas, like planning permission, building regulations approval and for home owners, agreement from your mortgage lender.
Making you responsible for all future repairs and maintenance to the part of your home you improve.

You may have to send us paperwork and certificates to prove you have met any conditions.
Sometimes, if you move out after the improvements have been finished you may be required to put the property back to the condition it was in before the improvements where carried out. If this is the case, we will tell you about these conditions when we give you approval.

If you move out and we have agreed you don’t need to change the property back to how it was originally, then we may compensate you for the work you have done.

Applying for permission to make improvements to your home

You can apply by completing the application form and attaching it to your contact form requesting permission to make improvements or by posting to:
Orbit
PO Box 6406
Coventry
CV3 9NB

You will also have to pay an administration fee to cover the cost of work involved in considering your application for improvements and any work required to check you have met the conditions, which form part of our agreement. Details are shown on the administration fee pages of the improvements leaflet.

Once you have submitted your application, we will contact you to make payment over the phone by debit or credit card. We will not progress your application without payment of the fee.

If we don’t agree to the improvements to your property you have a right to appeal the decision.

Sometimes, if you move out after the improvements have been finished, you may have to put the property back to the condition it was in before the improvements where made. If this is the case, we will tell you about these conditions when we give you approval.

Section 20 consultations

If you are a leaseholder with us, you are responsible for paying a share of the costs for maintenance, repairs and improvements to your building. These costs will be recovered through your service charge.

Where we need to carry our major repairs and improvements, we will consult with you over any work that need to be completed, of which you are expected to bear the costs. The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 sets the financial limits for works which you must be consulted about. This process is referred to as Section 20 Consultation, outlined below.

If you require further information about the Section 20 process or about a specific consultation please contact us.

Section 20 Consultation process

When we are going to carry out major work or redecoration to your block or estate, you have a legal right to be consulted. We will send you a formal notice and details of the estimates for the work and your estimated share of the cost.

You will have 30 days under each stage of consultation to give us your comments. We will look carefully at your comments and will take them into account before making our decision on how to proceed. We have responsibility under the lease to repair and maintain the building and ultimately to decide what work needs to be done, taking into account the comments made.

Where there is a recognised residents’ association we will consult with them.

The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 states that we need to consult you on two areas of cost:

Qualifying long term agreements

This is an agreement or contract for a term of more than 12 months. These could include repairs, maintenance, cyclical work, servicing, improvement work, communal cleaning and gardening, contracts for lift or door entry/entry phone system maintenance, fire precaution equipment servicing, insurances and utilities (if tendered).

We will consult where the contribution by any one leaseholder or shared owner exceeds £100 (including VAT) in the accounting period of one year. Where residents pay proportional payments (i.e. buildings insurance), we will consult with all residents if one or more residents are required to pay over £100.

Qualifying work

This is repair, maintenance, cyclical decoration or improvement work on a building or any other relevant premises. The inclusion of improvement in the definition of qualifying works does NOT allow a landlord to recover costs for improvements unless a liability for costs of improvements is included in the lease. When calculating the estimated cost, VAT on works must be included. We must consult if these works will cost over £250 for any one leaseholder.

For both types of consultation there are three main stages:

Stage 1. Notice of intent

We will write to you detailing the scope of the work. You will be given 30 days in which to submit any comments and nominate a contractor of your choice. Please note that any contractor nominated by a resident must meet all the conditions we set for our contractors.

Stage 2. Our proposal

We will tender the work and following receipt of the tenders, set out our proposals to you. You will be given a period of 30 days to comment on the proposal.

Stage 3. Instructing the work

If we instruct the work but do not select either a nominated contractor or the lowest estimate, we will tell you why. A summary of your written views will be included together with our responses.

Home Improvement Agency

Orbit will no longer be providing the Home Improvement Agency for Suffolk from 30 November 2020. Any enquiry related to the Occupational Therapy or Grab Rail service should be signposted to Suffolk County Council. Any enquiry related to works under a Disabled Facilities Grant should go to the local District or Borough Council.

Babina’s kitchen refurbishment experience

You deserve to live in a place you can be proud of, so we invest in your homes to ensure they’re comfortable, safe and maintained to a modern standard.

Babina, a customer who lives in Broadstairs, recently spoke with us about her experience of having a brand-new kitchen fitted as part of our home improvement programme.

“I was contacted by Tanya in the Property Improvement team in April about having a new kitchen fitted and jumped at the chance. I had been feeling a bit fed up due to some health issues and felt it could be the boost I needed. I was offered an installation date just a few weeks later and given some simple choices about the type and colour of worktops, cupboards, tiles and flooring. I decided on a white and grey design to brighten up my kitchen.
The team of contractors turned up on time and were super friendly and helpful. My dog, Ralph, loves people, and they made such a fuss of him which made both Ralph and I feel at ease. They offered to move everything out of the kitchen. I put my microwave and kettle in my living room, so I was still able to eat and drink for the week my new kitchen was being installed.

I hadn’t expected them to plaster all the walls, however it’s standard for new kitchens. Having lovely smooth walls has really added to the result. The kitchen was finished within a week and the contractors left everything clean and tidy. They also helped put everything back where it belonged, which is part of their hassle-free service.
I’m absolutely delighted with my new, beautiful, modern kitchen. It has exceeded all my expectations. As an Italian, it has reignited my love for cooking traditional pasta dishes. My friends who have visited are really impressed with the high-quality finish – and the lovely food I’ve made for them!
I’m proud to say I now have the best kitchen on the block. The whole process was fantastic from start to finish. I would encourage everyone to take up the offer of a new kitchen. If you are prepared to not have full use of your kitchen for a few days, the minor inconvenience is worth every second and you will get help from a wonderful team every step of the way.”