Home adaptations

Minor adaptations are alterations costing up to £1,000 that can be carried out safely with a referral from an occupational therapist, hospital discharge team, doctor or other medical professional or assessment by a trusted assessor. These adaptations could be:

• Grab rails, handrails, and stair handrails.
• Flashing doorbells and smoke alarm alerts (for customers who are deaf or hard of hearing). 
• Window opening equipment.
• Provision of suitable taps, door handles, banister handrails, sockets.
• Internal / external door threshold ramps and alterations.
• Door entry systems.

If you rent with us and need any of the above minor adaptations to meet your needs and/or the needs of someone who lives with you, we’ll either:

• Arrange the adaptations for you and pay for them (as long as there’s enough money remaining in our adaptations budget for the year), or 
• Signpost you to other organisations who may be able to provide them and, if you’d like us to, we’ll help you to apply. 

If you’re a leaseholder or shared owner, or you’ve started the process to purchase your home under the Right to Buy or Right to Acquire, and you need adaptations made inside your home, we won’t be able to do the points above, but we can help signpost you to a relevant organisation who may be able to assist you.

Major adaptations are more expensive alterations costing over £1,000 and that require work of a more complex nature, such as:

• Stair lifts, through floor lifts, ceiling hoists and ramps.
• Level access showers and wet rooms.
• Toilets with an automatic flush.
• Internal and external adaptation works to a home or garden to meet any disability-related safety and accessibility needs.
  
  

We’ll only consider requests for major adaptations that are recommended by an occupational therapist (OT). If you don’t already have an OT, we can help you to get one. We’ll then review their recommendations and approval will be given, although this will depend on certain criteria. If the recommendations are approved, we’ll discuss with you what works will be done, who will complete them, who will pay for them, and any potential service charge changes the changes will incur. 

We may either:

• Signpost you to other organisations who may be able to help pay for the works, and if you’d like us to, help you to apply. This may include applying to your local authority for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), or
• Pay for the works ourselves (or contribute to the cost), if there’s enough money remaining in our annual adaptions budget.

In some cases, we may not be able to approve your request - this could be due to practicalities in your home, whether the adaptation would negatively impact your neighbours, clauses in your lease and other reasons.  If this happens, we’ll offer alternative measures in order to support you. 

If you’re a leaseholder or shared owner, or you’ve started the process to purchase your home under the Right to Buy or Right to Acquire, and you need adaptations made inside your home, we won’t be able to do the points above, but we can help signpost you to a relevant organisation who may be able to assist you.