Adapting Homes
Peterborough Care & Repair Agency
Your local Home Improvement Agency -
providing a service for older residents and people with
disabilities to help with repairs, improvements and adaptations to
enable independent living and improve quality of life. Private
tenants can benefit from the service with the co-operation of their
landlords.
Frequently Asked Questions
What actually happens
from initial contact to work completed and paid for, and what is
the role of the agency through this?
- A referral is sent to Care & Repair from the Occupational Therapist
- An initial means test is carried out to indicate whether the client is likely to be eligible for grant aid
- If grant aid is not available the client is informed and ways forward discussed
- If the client wants Care & Repair to act as their agent, appointments are made for a caseworker and a surveyor to visit
- The caseworker deals with the funding side of each case, while the surveyor provides detailed schedules of the work required
- Where appropriate the surveyor will provide drawings and obtain any permissions including those from Planning and Building Control officers
- Quotations for the work are obtained from Care & Repair's pool of reputable building companies
- Where a grant is being applied for, the caseworker will put together the package and submit it to the City Council officers for approval
- Once the grant has been awarded to the client, a date is set for the work
- The surveyor will oversee all the works while on site and deal with the builders and any other officers, for example, grants officers or Building Control officers
- The caseworker keeps in contact with the client throughout and will help ensure that the process runs as smoothly as possible
- Once the agency surveyor is satisfied that the
work is completed satisfactorily, the grants officer will visit to
check that he is satisfied.
Once the grant officer has agreed that the work has been completed properly, the grant will be paid. This will include the cost of any fees incurred for the work - Where clients want the Agency to carry out private works they can contact Care & Repair directly and we will discuss their needs and what we can offer. We offer a similar service - including design, drawing, obtaining of estimates and overseeing of the works - to those clients accessing grants and other funding
How have Peterborough Care & Repair
selected the contractors we use/recommend?
The building contractors on our list have their work inspected by our surveyors, complete a questionnaire on their company, provide details of their insurance cover, go through an interview process and sign a code of conduct. This takes place before they are asked to carry out any work by Care & Repair. Many of our builders have been accepted onto our list as a result of recommendations by satisfied customers.
Is there any further information on
Care and Repair fees?
Fees vary with the grant
being awarded, for example 15% on disabled facility grants.
For repair assistance rates will vary with the size of the grant,
for example major works would attract a 15% fee, while smaller
grants may attract fees of 10-12%.
What happens if people need work doing,
but are not eligible for a grant?
There are now a variety of options available.
For example, clients may choose to fund the work themselves through
either a loan or from personal savings, or in some cases where they
are over 60, or disabled, use the loans secured through
'Houseproud'. In addition Care & Repair will always attempt to
find resources from Trusts and Charitable organisations; these
generally assist those on low incomes.
If I am eligible for a
grant, what type of work is it likely to
fund?
Repairs including:
- damp proofing works
- installation of central heating
- electrical rewiring
- roofing works/insulation/guttering
- replacement windows
- timber treatment
- renewal of plumbing installations
- bathroom/kitchen improvements
A HouseProud scheme operated by The Home
Improvement Trust offers advice and alternative ways of financing
adaptations and repairs. Visit their website for more
information.
