Throughout your tenancy with us at Belvoir Belfast, you’re bound to come across a few slight maintenance issues. Whilst some of them are likely to require the attention of a trained engineer, for the smaller everyday issues refer to our below guides to help you manage your home yourself.
Sinks in the kitchen and bathroom can easily become blocked with food waste or hair. If you start to notice the water in your sinks or showers is draining slowly or the toilet refills high each time it’s flushed, you may need to unblock your drains.
To avoid large blockages that will ultimately require a plumber to rectify, we recommend regularly using domestic drain unblocking chemicals which can easily be purchased from supermarkets or hardware stores. You may also want to invest in a small plunger to help remove minor blockages.
Be aware that if a plumber is called to a blockage that is a result of tenant negligence, then you could be responsible for the invoice!
If all the electric power in the property goes off, one of two things has likely happened.
There may be a power cut in your area. To check if this has happened look at the streetlights, or your neighbour’s lights or ultimately go speak to a neighbour if you are unsure whether it’s just your power.
Or a fuse may have ‘tripped’. This is likely to be due to a lightbulb or the fuse in a plug blowing. To find out where your fuse box is, check your inventory – it should tell you on the back page. Once you have located it, check all the switches are in the ‘on’ position. If any are in the ‘off’ position you will need to flick this back on. There may also be a main switch that will need to be flicked back into the on position.
If the electrics are off but none of the fuses are flipped ‘off’ then try flicking them all off, then on again to see if this solves the issue.
If your fuse box trips repeatedly, or always trips when you try to use a certain appliance this may mean that the fuse to that appliance itself needs replacing.
To change the plugs fuse – unplug the appliance, unscrew the plastic casing and remove the fuse. Check its amperage (usually 13A) and replace with a new fuse of the same amperage – these can be purchased from any hardware store. Plug the appliance back in and test it.
Sometimes air gets trapped in the heating system or individual radiators, this stops the heating working as efficiently as it should and stops your house getting as warm as it can too!
The radiator should now begin to heat evenly from top to bottom.
Belfast is a predominately hard water area; this means that you are more likely to have lime scale build up on your taps and water-based appliances. Regular cleaning with specific ‘lime scale removing’ cleaning products will help prevent this damaging the appliance or item irreparably.
Don’t forget lime scale also builds up where you might not be able to see it – inside washing machines, or under the water line of your toilet. Make sure you use cleaning products in your washing machine and occasionally run a boil wash, without clothes, to help prevent build up, as well as regularly bleaching your toilet overnight.
ALWAYS READ THE LABELS! These products tend to be heavy duty so make sure you follow the directions and only use it on suitable surfaces and keep yourself safe by ventilating the room well too!
This is more common in older properties but can appear in any property if you don’t handle it properly. What you are doing, or not doing, can greatly contribute to rather exacerbating the issues, or helping to control and minimise the risk.
Condensation and mould build up is the tenant’s responsibility to maintain, so if you are struggling make sure you speak to the office as soon as possible, as any damage to the property deemed to have been caused by this could be claimed against you.
For any issues that can’t be resolved by yourself, please report the maintenance to us.
For any urgent maintenance issues make sure you contact the office as quickly as possible, so no further damage is caused by a delay.
