Estate ServicesThere is a range of services that we provide to homes and estates, although not every home will receive all the services described. If you are not sure whether a particular service is provided to your home, please do not hesitate to contact your area housing office for help.
Cleaning
We are committed to a cleaner and greener Southwark. We can only achieve this with your support and cooperation. In turn, we will continue to improve on the standards.
In recent years, we have introduced a borough-wide cleaning contract which deals with cleaning and grounds maintenance on streets and on housing estates. The contract
is run by Southwark cleaning (020 7525 2000) but the quality of the work on housing estates is monitored by your area housing office.
We aim to clean all shared areas (inside and outside) on estates, in blocks and in all sheltered units. You are responsible for cleaning inside your home as well as balconies and the area around your front door or garden gate.
Our cleaners should
- Clear leaves
- Make sure that pathways have grit when the weather is snowy or icy
- Remove any large items of rubbish or graffiti from shared areas and
- Remove racist, sexist or other offensive graffiti within 24 hours.
Rubbish
It is very important that you make sure that you put all your rubbish into the chutes or bins provided, and that any wet or messy rubbish is well wrapped up. Wrap up disposable nappies and sanitary towels, and put them out with the rubbish – do not flush them down the toilet as this can cause serious blockages.
Rubbish dumped around your home is not only ugly but can also attract pests and vermin so we will take action against anyone we find dumping rubbish.
Chutes
You should only put normal domestic household rubbish, wrapped or in a bag, into a chute, preferably between 8am and 8pm so as not to disturb your neighbours. You should not put cardboard boxes, coat hangers, umbrellas, brick rubble, wood and so on into chutes. You should squash plastic bottles and remove the tops completely.
Bulky rubbish
If you need help to get rid of any large unwanted items of furniture and so on, you can arrange this, free of charge, by contacting our environmental services helpline on 020 7525 2000. Collection may take five to ten days.
For garden or builders’ waste, please check with the environmental services helpline for current arrangements. Please do not just leave bulky items of furniture on the street or on any shared area. If you do dump furniture and we have evidence, we may prosecute you and you may have to pay a fine.
Engine oil
If you change your car’s engine oil yourself, please take the waste oil to the Manor Place Depot (off Walworth Road). It is illegal to put engine oil down the drain and it is harmful to the environment.
Recycling
If you live in a property on a street, we run a collection service every two weeks for tins, bottles and paper. We will give you a box for bottles and tins and a bag for paper.
Tenants living on housing estates, in blocks and in sheltered units often have access to recycling facilities within walking distance of their homes. If you want details of your nearest recycling facility, please contact your area housing office. Remember, if newspapers, bottles and cans are recycled, it
will reduce the number and cost of rubbish collections.
If you need to get rid of chemicals such as paint stripper, turpentine, wood preservative or varnish, please phone the Environment Agency on 01932 789833 for advice.
Reporting problems
Although our staff regularly inspect and check cleaning standards and general repairs to your estates, quite often you will know about problems before we do.
If you live on a housing estate you can report any problems needing a repair directly to our repairs call centre using our freephone number 0800 952 4444. This could be anything including an out of order lift, broken glass on a stairwell or a security door not closing properly.
If you live on an estate and there are problems with the estate cleaning or dumped cars, you can either contact your area housing office or the environmental call centre on 020 7525 2000.
You can report problems with street lights, your rubbish collection, street cleaning, dumped cars or rubbish on the street directly to the environmental call centre on 020 7525 2000.
Lifts
Many of our blocks of flats have lifts. All our lifts will be serviced regularly. However, occasionally lifts break down. You can help keep lifts in working order by
- Reporting any problems to the housing repairs call centre or to your area housing office
- Making sure your children and their friends do not play in the lifts or with any part of the lift and
- Making sure that lift doors are not blocked
All of our lifts have instructions inside to help you if it breaks down. |