Plumbing and heating merchant, City Plumbing, is partnering with property-technology specialist Help me Fix to support social housing providers under pressure to improve repairs, meet new legal obligations, and build resident trust.
The partnership brings together City Plumbing’s national network of branches and advanced boiler diagnostics tool, FaultFinder, with Help me Fix’s AI-powered platform, creating a powerful solution to help landlords manage repairs faster and more effectively. The service can support 20 core trade areas, including damp and mould, plumbing, electrics and joinery.
The collaboration comes at a time when the sector is facing significant regulatory change. The Social Housing (Regulation) Act, alongside Awaab’s Law, is setting tougher guidelines around safety, speed and communication in response to repairs, particularly those affecting resident health. Meanwhile, the Housing Ombudsman has reported a sharp rise in repair complaints, putting many providers under pressure to improve the performance of both their in-house teams and contractors.
The partnership between City Plumbing and Help me Fix will support housing providers in tackling repairs more efficiently and at a reduced cost. Help Me Fix is an AI-powered property repair and maintenance triage platform designed to reduce unnecessary engineer visits and streamline repair workflows. Based on live video and smart diagnostics, it enables residents and contact centre agents to resolve many issues remotely. Since launching in 2019, the company has supported over 200 organisations, de-escalating 90% of emergencies without engineer attendance.
Now, through its integration with City Plumbing’s FaultFinder tool, the Help me Fix platform has an extra layer of efficiency, as issues can be identified more precisely and matched with over 7,000 parts across more than 13,000 boiler models. Parts can then be sourced directly from City Plumbing’s nationwide network of over 360 branches, reducing delays, unnecessary visits and repair costs, while improving the experience for residents and the first-time fix rate.
The partnership with Help me Fix will further strengthen City Plumbing’s support and services for the social housing sector, which is delivered via its Integrated Solutions at City Plumbing division. This specialist team has been working with housing providers and procurement frameworks for over 20 years.
Richard Adams, Sales Director for Integrated Solutions at City Plumbing, said: “The Housing Ombudsman’s latest report makes it clear there is an essential need to speed up repairs, and moreover, deliver a service that rebuilds trust and puts residents at the centre.
“While we’ve long championed a smarter, more proactive approach to maintenance, our partnership with Help me Fix takes what’s possible to the next level. It brings together smart diagnostics, AI triage and practical delivery through our national network of City Plumbing branches to help landlords move to a faster, efficient and more resident-focused solution.”
Ettan Bazil, CEO of Help me Fix, added: “Housing providers are in a perfect storm of regulation, rising repair volumes, tighter budgets and growing resident expectations. This partnership gives them the tools to meet that challenge head-on.”
The virtual repair assistant, Aidenn, has been designed with data security and privacy at its core. All information shared through the platform is protected in line with GDPR requirements. Help me Fix does not use any data shared with Aidenn to train large language models, and all data is securely stored in UK-based data centres. To ensure maximum protection, all information is encrypted both in transit and at rest, giving housing providers and residents confidence that their data is handled safely and responsibly.
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