CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SATISFACTION
Management and maintenance services
Cotman is very proud of its record in provision of good housing management and maintenance services, both on its own behalf and on behalf of its management agency clients. In order to ensure that this standard of service is maintained the performance of the Association and its contractors is continually monitored.
The residents of the Association’s rented housing stock and of Leasehold Scheme for the Elderly properties have responsibility only for internal redecoration, Cotman undertaking the day to day, cyclical and planned maintenance of their homes. The majority of the Association’s management agency clients also require the Association to control their maintenance programme. Shared ownership residents are responsible for the complete internal and external maintenance of their properties.
Resident Satisfaction and Repair Response Times
A “Customer Satisfaction” slip is sent to each household for which a repair has been ordered, asking residents to indicate if they are happy with the standard of the work and way in which it was undertaken.
Returned slips are analysed and the results reported in the Association’s Annual Report. Contractors who consistently fail to provide a satisfactory service will be excluded from the Association’s approved list.
The Association has adopted a formal Complaints and Compensation Policy and Procedure. This entitles residents to financial compensation if the Association fails to provide the level of service that they could reasonably expect, if the Association’s contractors fail to meet the targets set for response to repairs, or if they fail to carry those repairs out satisfactorily.
Cyclical Maintenance
The Association prides itself on the condition of its housing stock, and aims to undertake external redecoration, together with any associated necessary repairs, at least every four years. Management agency clients are encouraged to work to a similar timetable for the external redecoration of their properties.
Planned and Major Repairs Provisions – Meeting Decent Homes Standard
The Association is in the somewhat unusual position that the majority of its rented housing stock was built after 1974. This has the advantage that significant major repairs are not envisaged as being necessary for some considerable time, but means that costly planned maintenance in the form of, for example, new kitchens and replacement central heating systems are required in many properties at the same time.
The Association has computerised records of the condition of all its rented properties, held as part of a programme that identifies likely planned maintenance requirements in both the short and long term, in order to ensure that money is set aside in the budget annually to build up provisions for the work. The programme takes into account the requirements of the Decent Homes standard, and all properties are expected to comply by the required date of 2010.
The stock condition survey informs the Association’s ten-year planned maintenance programme which is reviewed and updated annually as a rolling programme of work. Planned maintenance work totalling over £4,940,000 is scheduled to take place by 2011.
A similar programme has been produced for the Association’s Leasehold Scheme for the Elderly properties.
The Association has a provision for major repairs of its rented stock, calculated at the Housing Corporation’s specified rate.
Provisions for major repairs of the Association’s Leasehold Schemes for the Elderly have also been established, outgoing Leaseholders paying 1% of their original purchase price into the fund for each year they have owned the property.
Although the Association is not responsible for the maintenance and repair of its shared ownership properties, these will ultimately be included in the stock condition survey, the Association being empowered under the terms of the shared ownership lease to undertake necessary repair work and re-charge the cost to the shared owner if the property has not been properly maintained.
Rent Setting
The DETR’s document “Guide to Social Rent Reforms” sets out requirements for the rents of RSL’s to converge with those of local authorities by 2012.
The Association’s rents are set in accordance with the formula given in the document, taking into account the average social housing sector rent for the area, property values and local incomes.