Charges for missed appointments
Every appointment matters: when we can access your home as previously arranged, we can help you sooner and keep appointments available for other residents.
We want to provide the best service we can and making the most of all the appointments available is an important part of that. Almost 10% of the appointments Mears book with residents fail because there is no one at home to let them in. That is nearly 4,000 appointments every year. That is a lot of wasted time and resources. Every appointment missed means a longer wait for someone else and money wasted that we could use to offer more support to our residents who need it.
Lots of services now charge for missed appointments, for example, you may have noticed your GP or Dentist introducing fees if you do not attend. Our services are in high demand so we want to make sure we can offer you an appointment as soon as we can.
In order to address this challenge, from Monday 9 November, we will be resuming charging for missed appointments. So, if you agree an appointment and then are not at home for it, we may charge you £75. We used to do this and there was a notable reduction in missed appointments and so we suspended the charge, but the numbers are creeping up again and we need to address the problem.
When will charges apply?
This will apply to any pre-arranged appointment, including:
- repairs appointments
- essential safety checks
- your annual tenancy visit.
This is not an exhaustive list as we hope you would be available for all appointments that have been booked in advance. It does not apply to any ad hoc visits we may attempt.
The good news is it is really easy to avoid any charges. Simply arrange for someone over the age of 18 to be at home to provide access at the time of your appointment or call us in advance if you need to rearrange. We think that's fair and the best way we can deliver a fast, reliable service for everyone.
Call our Contact Centre to manage an appointment