What happens if you ask for help with repairs

If you would like help from the Council with repairs and improvements you should fill in our enquiry form and send it to us. When we have got your enquiry form we will send you a letter to confirm that we have got it.

Please note, you will not have committed to anything by filling the form in - it just means that we have some details that will help us advise you about your options.

Once we have got your enquiry form, we will carry out a financial assessment. Normally we will either write to you for any more information that we need or our Financial Assessment Officers will get in touch with you to arrange a time when they can come and visit. We carry out the financial assessment to check whether you can get a loan or not. If you cannot get a loan we will consider whether you can have a Health and Safety Assistance Grant. Once we have completed the financial assessment, we will write to you to say whether you can get financial help from the Council and what this will be.

If we can help you, a Housing Technical Officer will arrange to visit you to look at your home and the repairs that you need. If we agree that the repairs are needed, we will send you a list of the repairs or improvements that we can give you help with (we call this a schedule of works).

At this stage, for loans only, you can decide whether you would like to use the Agency Service. If you do not use the Agency Service you will now need to get two quotations from reputable contractors (such as a builder or roofer) for doing the agreed repairs or improvements.

Once you have let us have the estimates, we will look at how much financial assistance we can give you. The amount of assistance we can give will be the lower amount from either the quotations you have provided or our estimate of how much the repairs you need should cost. If you can get a Home Appreciation Loan you will now need to fill in the paperwork to get this set up. The paperwork is sent to Sheffield City Council who sort out all the legal issues to do with the loan - this can take some time.

When everything is sorted out, we will write to you to confirm that either your grant or loan has been approved and how much this is. You can then tell your contractor to start the work. Please note you must not carry out any of the work before we have formally approved your application.

You must complete the work within 3 months if you are getting a Health and Safety Assistance Grant or 6 months if you are getting a Home Appreciation Loan. If at any time you are not happy with the standard of work being carried out, you should tell your contractor, and also let us know.

Once the repairs or improvements have been carried out to your satisfaction, you must send your contractor’s bill to us. An officer will visit you again to check that the work is satisfactory and we will then arrange for the money to be paid to your contractor. Please note, you must not pay your contractor, because the Council will do this.

We have produced a flowchart (PDF, 45kb) which summarises the main stages that you will follow if you get help with repairs and improvements.