Planned maintenance
Where our homes have a shared or communal garden/lawn area, we may provide a grounds maintenance service. You pay for this service through a weekly/monthly service charge. We carry out regular visits throughout the year.
- Maintenance of communal grassed areas which involves controlling excessive growth by cutting grass
- We use a combination of ride on and pedestrian rotary mowers which cut and drop the grass back into the lawned areas, this is known as mulching
- Collection off the grass is on an exceptional case by case basis, and isn’t routinely performed as the cost would increase significantly
- It includes strimming around obstacles, fence lines, path edges or areas where the mowers cannot reach
- Maintaining the shape and balance of communal hedges and shrubs which consists of controlling plant growth by a combination of pruning and trimming
- We use a combination of petrol hedge cutters during these activities
- We can’t undertake this between March and September due to the Wildlife and Country Act 1981, around nesting birds. We'll restart hedge/shrub trimming from September onwards
It also includes:
- Removing litter and controlling weeds
- Using a knapsack sprayer to spot, treat or remove by hand tall or inaccessible weeds
- Litter picking will be carried out on every visit
- This will consist of removing litter from communal areas, including leaf removal
- Weed/moss treatment will be carried out when required (please see below schedule)
- The treatment will be scheduled when the spraying conditions are optimal, ideally with dry weather with little wind
- Weed/moss treatment will help to reduce the risk of slipping and will will also improve the visual appearance of your estate
- Hand weeding will be carried out in communal shrub beds if the conditions don't allow for a sprayer to be used
- Hand weeding will also include removal of any self-set saplings and older taller weeds
- This service is provided to our sheltered housing and over 55s schemes
- This includes the proactive gritting and the removal of snow from paths
| Task | Total |
| Grass cutting | 14 |
| Hedge/Shrub pruning | 2 |
| Meadow grass cut | 1 |
| Litter picking | 14 |
| Hand weeding beds | 6 |
| Spot treatment for shrub beds | 6 |
| Weed and moss treatment (spot spraying edgings) | 6 |
| Weed and moss treatment (blanket spraying paved areas) | 6 |
| Approximate schedule of visits | ||||||||||||||
| Task | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total | |
| Approximate site visits | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 19 | Visits per year |
| Grass cutting | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 | ||||
| Meadow grass cut | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Hedge/Shrub cutting | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Litter picking hard areas | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 14 | |
| Litter picking shrub beds | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 14 | |
| Hand weeding shrub beds | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
| Spot treatment Shrub beds | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
| Blanket spray paved areas | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
| Spot spray edgings | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
| Total task per month | 7 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 69 | Total tasks per year |
- You're able to view your planned maintenance in your online account
- Once logged in, you will see all planned maintenance due for the week on your homepage - you can then click on 'View all planned maintenance' if you would like to see past the week
- Alternatively, you can also view your planned maintenance in the 'Manage property' section of the online account
- Any planned maintenance that is scheduled can be added to your device's calendar by clicking on 'Add to calendar'
- Check out the below video, which you can also find in YouTube for more information
You can feedback on any completed planned maintenance and your comments will go straight to our grounds team.
To do this:
- Log into your online account
- Click on 'View all planned maintenance' from your home screen (you may need to scroll down to see it)
- Find the completed planned maintenance you would like to feed back
- Click on 'Submit feedback' and fill in the box that appears
- Then click 'Submit'
