Richmondshire housing service standards

Local offers have been looked at as additions to the overall services we deliver to our tenants.

Views have been gathered through the Grapevine newsletter as well as through customer surveys to develop a range of local offers that will make a difference to you. 

The standards have each been linked to a quick-tick customer survey which is used for all services delivered to individual tenants. The survey allows us to monitor how the customer experience has been.

The results of each of the service standards surveys are collated to show how we have performed and are assessed each quarter by our housing management performance team. It shows us if there any areas where we may be under- performing so that we can look at improvements.

Sheltered tenants are monitored on a quarterly basis to ensure this service continues to provide the standard we have agreed.

Tenant inspectors will assess void properties before we allocate them to see if they meet the void lettable standard. They will report back the results on a quarterly basis to the tenant monitoring and involvement group.

The tenant panel will go through each of the service standards every six months to assess performance, feedback any areas of concern they have and agree any actions they would like taken.

The customer services team undertakes performance monitoring using end-of-call surveys on the telephones, face-to-face feedback and satisfaction monitoring via a counter monitoring system.

You can contact us by online form, email, phone, or by visiting one of our offices. 

We can also visit you by prior arrangement.

• when you contact us we will aim to reply to you within 15 working days
• when you contact us by phone we will aim to deal with your query at first point of contact or transfer you to the most appropriate person
• our customer service team will help complete Housing Benefit applications and assist with our choice-based lettings service
• if you visit our offices, we will help you get information about other local services, such as health, support agencies and debt advice

We are a partner in the North Yorkshire Home Choice council lettings scheme. The scheme aims to provide a service that lets council homes in a fair and transparent way, ensuring that we make the best use of available housing and contribute to the creation of sustainable communities.

We will:

• train our staff so that you can receive good-quality advice
• provide a helpful and supportive service by all staff working in choice-based lettings
• provide you with a guide to sheltered housing if you require sheltered accommodation
• respond to written enquiries within 15 days
• provide you with information on your registration, band, properties you can bid for, reference number and password within 15 working days of registration on choice-based lettings
• monitor allocations between the bands and undertake periodic reviews
• monitor lettings to applicants living outside our locality so that we can be aware of trends and undertake reviews when necessary

Our aim is to give advice and support to residents of sheltered housing and help you understand about sheltered housing, what it is and whether it is right for you.

As part of that support:

• you will be offered an accompanied viewing with the resident warden of any property you are offered
• residents of sheltered housing will receive a copy of the guide to sheltered housing
• if you are a resident of sheltered housing, you will be contacted on a daily basis by your warden
• all residents of sheltered housing will be visited at least three times every week
• if you are a resident of a sheltered housing scheme your warden will complete a support plan with you and this will be reviewed every six months
• your warden will provide a friendly and helpful service
• the standard of cleanliness will be monitored by the resident warden with issues reported to the support and improvement manager
• the scheme will be secured each evening by the warden

We provide a service to help disabled tenants with small adaptations to allow them to keep their independence in their own homes.

We will look into shared outside adaptations, such as ramps to entrances on blocks of flats, as part of our neighbourhood environment work.

If we are doing major improvement work to your home and an adaptation is also required, we will try to do the adaptations at the same time.

We will provide good quality advice from the repairs team undertaking the adaptation. The tradesmen who carry out the work will provide a helpful service and we will keep you up to date with progress. We will try to provide minor adaptations to your home within 31 days of the request.

We want all new tenants to understand their tenancy agreement, be offered support when needed and have timely visits from a housing officer to help them settle into their new home.

The standard was developed following feedback from the tenant panel so that we could tailor the information and avoid information overload.

The standard sets out that:

• when signing up for a council home our allocations officer will explain the tenancy agreement and advise you on rent and tenancy obligations
• if you have a support need, our allocations officer will make a referral and, or signpost you to a support agency if you agree
• you will be made aware of the help that is available from the housing benefits department and Citizens Advice Bureau - visit the Citizens Advice Bureau website for more information
• all new tenants will be visited or contacted by our allocations officer within six weeks of the tenancy starting as part of the settling in process
• our staff will provide a helpful and friendly service
• all new tenants will be given a minimum of two keys for each outside door at the start of the tenancy
• we will let all our accommodation to meet an agreed lettable standard as an offer to all new tenants

We know how important it is to have a good quality repairs and maintenance service 

We have a tenants’ champion who has undertaken shadowing within the service and who undertakes empty property inspections with our maintenance team.

Through tenant consultation and input from our tenant panel, we developed our service standard including a local offer.

We will:

• monitor the priority of specific repairs to ensure they meet our internal timescales as agreed with tenants
• ensure our repair team will provide a good standard of advice to customers
• ensure our tradesmen will provide a helpful and friendly service
• provide a good quality service
• aim to complete all work in a timeframe which is acceptable to you
• maintain all our accommodation to a good standard
• install extractor fans in bathrooms and kitchens in all void properties as a local offer to new tenants

Our aim is to provide a programme of home improvements that continually allow us to meet the government’s decent home standard and the needs of our tenants.

We will:

• develop a five-year plan of improvements to meet the needs of our tenants and publish it for tenants
• notify all tenants of improvement planned for their home 12 months in advance of work commencing
• ensure that the contractor gives you a start date for the work at least 21 days before work begins
• keep you up to date with progress
• provide a helpful and friendly service by our tradesmen
• undertake work to a good quality standard
• provide a good standard of advice from our home improvement team
• incorporate a provision within our five-year improvement plan to undertake environmental improvements - for example, improved parking provision or improved estate fencing

You have told us that one of your main concerns is the behaviour of a small percentage of people who can affect whole communities.

We have listened and developed a standard that aims to provide an estate management service to help you feel proud about the area you live in. We use partnership arrangements to help us tackle anti-social behaviour issues.

We aim to achieve a balance when dealing with anti-social behaviour, between enforcement, prevention and rehabilitation.

We will:

• contact you within seven working days for all non-racist/hate-related reports of anti-social behaviour
• we will offer you mediation when appropriate if the nuisance is neighbour related
• discuss with you the actions we will take in response to your anti-social behaviour report
• confirm when we close a case with you and explain the reasons and what you should do if you have problems in the future
• arrange with our street scene colleagues to remove racist or hate-related graffiti from property we own within 48 hours of a report to us
• arrange with our street scene colleagues to remove all non-racist or non-hate related graffiti from property we own within 10 working days
• undertake estate walkabouts across the locality with tenants, tenant representatives and councillors as part of our local offer to tenants

We aim to collect rent and other charges promptly from tenants. We realise however that sometimes individual circumstances can change and affect the ability to pay rent as it falls due.

Where rent arrears do occur, we aim to keep these to a minimum and work with you to reduce arrears through a fair, responsive and firm approach using practical repayment plans and support for you from partner organisations.

We will:

1. provide you with good-quality advice when helping you with rent queries
2. make contact with you as soon as possible if you fall behind with your rent to avoid large arrears developing
3. work with specialist agencies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau to assist you with budgeting and independent rent advice
4. discuss payment options and agree a realistic and affordable payment plan and will only take formal action as a last resort if you fall into rent arrears
5. give you at least four weeks’ notice before we increase your rent, in line with the conditions of your tenancy agreement
6. work with you if you need help applying for different welfare-related benefits, referring you to Citizens Advice Bureau as necessary
7. provide you with at least two rent statements a year
8. confirm in writing arrangements we make with you to pay your rent and any rent arrears

Our aim is to provide good-quality advice and assistance throughout a tenancy, which continues up to and including the time when you advise us you wish to end your tenancy.

We want to ensure all tenants taking on a tenancy know what is expected of them as our tenants and the things they should make sure they do when they are bringing their tenancy to an end.

We will:

• train our staff so that you can receive a good standard of advice
• visit you at home within 10 working days of receiving your four weeks’ notice and advise you of anything you need to attend to before handing back the property keys
• provide you with a checklist of things you need to do before handing in the keys to the property
• send you an exit survey to complete and return so that we know why you are leaving our accommodation and if we can improve our tenancy service

We are committed to working with you to make sure you are able to get involved in making the decisions that affect your home.

We will:

• develop a tenant involvement agreement with tenants which allows tenant involvement at various levels to suit the needs of tenants. It will be reviewed every three years
• provide a dedicated budget annually for tenant involvement
• publish one Grapevine newsletter every year with members from the tenant editorial panel
• feedback to tenants following consultations using our website and Grapevine newsletter
• provide information in plain language using clear layouts
• provide a budget, as agreed with the tenant panel, to provide training, skills and capacity building to members of the various involvement groups as our local offer under the tenant involvement and empowerment national standard

If you feel we are not meeting the standards that we have set out, or that we could improve our service, contact us. 

If you are still not happy with the service you have received following your initial contact, you can get in touch with our maintenance team leader or housing management team leader for the Richmondshire area.