Tenants Charter and Service Standards

Your Home

• We will complete or make safe emergency repairs within 24 hours.
• We will carry out routine repairs within 28 full calendar days.
• We will aim to complete your repair on the first visit.
• We will provide you with a choice of appointments and send a confirmation text immediately after it is booked. We will then text you a reminder 24 hours before your appointment.
• We will carry out all legally required safety checks within the correct timescales.
• We will endeavour to keep repairs appointments but will inform you of any delays, as soon as possible, and within your scheduled appointment time.
• We will investigate all reports of damp, mould and condensation within 14 full calendar days.

Your Tenancy

• We will visit all new tenants in the first 6 weeks of their tenancy to provide advice, information and answer any queries.
• For tenants in apartment blocks with communal areas, we will carry out a fire safety visit at least once every 12 months.
• For all other properties, we will complete a home visit (known as a tenancy audit) at least once every 4 years to provide advice update information and answer any queries you may have.
• We will attempt to contact you within 5 full working days when you first fall into rent arrears and (if appropriate) discuss how we may be able to help.
• We will verify housing costs for new Universal Credit claims, within 3 full working days.
• An Income Advice Officer will contact you within 3 full working days of receiving a referral.
• We will provide you with a choice of payment methods, which include direct debits, telephone payments, internet payments, standing orders, PayPoints and Post Office.

Your Neighbourhood

• We will respond to all reports of anti social behaviour (ASB) within 5 full working days. Upon receipt of the report, should there be imminent risk identified then this response time will be adapted accordingly.
• For reports of ASB, we will complete a risk assessment and agree an initial action plan for all incidents within 5 full working days from our initial contact with you and keep you informed, at agreed timescales.
• For reports of ASB, we will advise you in writing of the outcome of our investigation within 7 full working days after closure.
• We will inspect communal areas within apartment blocks at least once a week.
• We will inspect and maintain Housing Revenue Account* (HRA) communal land and areas.
• We will remove rubbish which is deemed a health and safety hazard within 24 hours of it being reported to us.
• We will remove all other dumped rubbish from HRA communal land and areas within 5 full working days of it being reported to us.
• We will remove racist or offensive graffiti from HRA communal land and areas within 24 hours of it being reported to us.
• We will remove all other graffiti from HRA communal land and areas within 5 full working days of it being reported to us.
• We will clean the communal areas of all apartment blocks that are above 2 storeys and sheltered housing schemes, in line with the agreed schedule for that building.

* The Housing Revenue Account is a dedicated financial account for managing and maintaining local authority council homes.

Your Influence

• We will review these standards annually with a tenant group to ensure they’re relevant and record any changes in an open and transparent manner.
• We will seek your views and this information will be used to inform our decisions.
• We will meet with the Tenant Voice Panel at least once every 2 months.
• We will respond to Stage 1 complaints within 10 full working days of the complaint being logged.