12,266 requests for maintenance made to council this year so far
THERE have been over 12,000 housing maintenance requests for repairs made to South Dublin County Council this year so far.
In a recent report, the council revealed that a total of 12,266 requests for maintenance were made from January to September this year. The council released this figure in response to a question which was asked by Social Democrats councillor Carly Bailey at the October council meeting.
The figures also revealed that a total of 17,540 and 16,755 maintenance requests were logged in 2019 and 2020 respectively for the entire year.
In their response, the council stated that requests for repairs are categorised and responded to within guidelines, ranging from emergency to cyclical. If a request is categorised as emergency, such as a burst water tank, the timescale in which the council aim to respond is one -five working days.
Urgent categories such as a leak under a sink can take up to 10 working days for a response and a routine such as a faulty radiator can take up to 12 weeks. Requests categorised as ‘cyclical’ such as a gutter replacement or a replacement hall door can take from one to seven years.
The council stated in their response: “The response may involve an initial inspection of the property to determine the exact nature of the works to ensure that the request is correctly categorised.
“Works are then either classified as response or cyclical and the maintenance request is closed out with works assigned to a particular response or planned maintenance programme.”
The council also confirmed that the introduction of a new integrated housing system coupled with a system upgrade in the fourth quarter of this year will “greatly enhance” reporting on maintenance requests and timeframes once fully operational.
Discussing the new system, the council said in their response: “The system will also provide tenants with the option of tracking the progress of their own maintenance requests through the Housing Online system which has recently commenced for a pilot group of tenants and focused on our planned and cyclical maintenance programmes, supported by the recruitment of additional staff.”
