Report a Repair

You can report a repair or maintenance item to us by contacting our Customer Services Team on 1300 153 850 or by emailing us at infosa@hcau.org.au.

Our Customer Services Team will ask questions to determine the exact nature of the problem, the location in your home and the urgency of the response required. The information you provide when reporting a repair helps us to prioritise repairs and give clear instructions to the contractor who will attend.

Our staff will advise you of the priority of your repair and the time frame for completion. The priorities and time frames are outlined below. The time it takes to commence and/or complete the maintenance work is dependent on your availability. If you have a preference for when contractors should attend, please let us know and we will pass this on to the contractors. Our contractors will call you when they receive the work request to arrange a suitable day and time for attendance. If they cannot get in contact with you, they will still attend your home in the required time frame and knock on your door to attempt to gain access.

If you call 1300 153 850 before 9:00am and after 5:00pm Monday – Friday or on a weekend or public holiday, your call will be forwarded to our contractor, Maintenance Matters, who manage our After-Hours service. They will also ask questions to determine if your repair requires an urgent or emergency response. Urgent or emergency responses are generally required for an issue that is related to your health and safety or the prevention of serious damage to your home. If it does require such a response, Maintenance Matters will send a contactor to make safe, and repair, if possible. If your call is not answered, please leave a clear message with your name, address and contact details so Maintenance Matters can call you back.

Depending on whether you live in a Common Ground or a ROSAS (transfer from Housing Trust) property, the response timeframes will be different (due to different contractual obligations).

The following priority time frames apply if you are a Common Ground resident:

Priority: Completion
Urgent: 24 hours
Routine: 7 days
Minor: 14 days

The following time frames apply if you are a ROSAS resident:

Priority

Commencement

Completion

ROSAS P1

Within 4 hours

Within 5 working days

ROSAS P2

Within 24 hours

Within 7 working days

ROSAS P3

Within 10 working days

Within 20 working days

Where:

‘Commencement’ means attending the site and commencing repairs. Where it is not possible to complete the repairs at the initial attendance, contractor is required to make the property safe if not already, regardless of the priority of the order and return to complete by the completion date.

‘Completion’ means the period by which all work must be finished, from the date the order was issued.

An Urgent or P1 is any fault or damage that makes the property unsafe or insecure, or puts the health and safety of tenants and/or neighbours at risk, for example, flooding, serious storm or fire damage, serious roof leak, burst water service, broken door locks or windows. If you report any such problems, we will only be able to make safe and/or fix the problem within 4 or 24 hours if you provide our contractor with access to your home.

Tenant Damage

Tenant Damage is damage that has occurred due to accidental or deliberate damage (usually a one-off event) to your home. Things such as broken windows and holes in walls are examples of tenant damage. You should report any accidental or deliberate damage to us as soon as possible so we can arrange for repairs to occur.

The cost of repairs for items deemed to be tenant damage will usually be passed on to the tenant via a charge to their rental account. See our Tenant Damage and Recharge Policy [include link to policy] for further information about this.

From time to time, malicious damage may occur, such as a broken window, that was not caused by a member of your household. In these situations, providing a police report has been made and you provide the reference number to us when reporting the damage, the cost of repairs will not be passed on to the tenant.

You can contact our Customer Services Team on 1300 153 850 or email us at infosa@hcau.org.au to report tenant damage.