Our service standards

Communication

We'll:

• Acknowledge all online and email enquiries within one working day

• Answer all general enquiries within five working days

• Aim to provide a response to your complaint within 10 working days

• Complete conveyancing enquiries within 20 working days

• Fully reply to sales requests from solicitors within 20 working days

• Answer service charge queries within 30 working days

• Reply within the timescales above, but if we're unable to do this, we'll tell you when you can expect a full response

• Promote and continually develop ways you can access our services online

• Provide you with a named contact for any issues you report to us

• Provide you with a phone number to contact us, which is free of charge.

Repairs

We'll:

• Attend to emergency repairs within 4 hours, ensuring we make safe.

• Carry out urgent repairs within 24 hours. These are repairs that are deemed necessary to avoid the risk of injury to people, or damage to buildings and property.

• Carry out routine repairs within 20 working days.

• Carry out planned and packaged repairs within 90 calendar days. These are repairs which are either more complex, or of a much lower priority.

• Give you a job reference number and offer you a range of appointment dates and times when you request a repair or adaption to your home

• Carry out repairs to fix any items we provide

• Service your gas boiler every year, if you live in a rented property

• Remove offensive graffiti

• Repair, replace or provide temporary lighting within shared areas within five working days of any lighting fault being reported to us

• Repaint the outside of wooden doors and windows, and shared areas, every seven years. Where possible we'll give you a choice of colours and finishes.

Rent and service charges

We'll:

• Give you the ability to register your interest to pay us by Direct Debit online

• Contact you to agree how you are going to pay us if you fall behind on your rent

• Send you an annual schedule for your new rent and estimated service charges, including a summary of the costs for services relevant to you.

Leasehold services

We'll:

• Send you a copy of your actual service charge by November of each year. We'll compare your actual service charge against the estimated service charge and inform you of any adjustments that need to be applied to your account

• Carry out consultations whenever we plan to deliver work or services which you must pay for in your service charges. These are known as 'Section 20 consultations.' We'll review all comments we receive during the consultations and provide you with a written reply. In most cases, we'll also publish our formal responses on our website.

Moving in

We'll:

• Make sure the property meets all health and safety requirements, and is fit for purpose

• Provide you with a welcome pack.

Estate services

We'll:

• Keep the shared areas of buildings and grounds where you live clean, tidy and safe.

Anti-social behaviour

We'll:

• Contact you within 2 working days to get more information about your anti-social behaviour (ASB) issue

• Complete a risk assessment with you

• Agree an action plan, and work alongside other agencies to resolve the issue. We'll update you on our progress each month.

Support services

We'll:

• Give you a welcome pack, including relevant information about our support services and the local area

• Give you information and support to help you take part in the activities we organise, or those organised by other agencies we work with

• Make sure we fully assess your needs

• Agree a specific and realistic independent living plan that you understand and review it at least every 3 months.

• Make sure we agree any changes to the support we provide you with everyone involved.

Complaints

We'll:

• Contact you within five working days of receiving your formal complaint with our plan to investigate it

• Give you a comprehensive answer to your complaint at the first stage.

Customer involvement and feedback

We'll:

• Ask for feedback on our services through our survey programme and other channels

• Explain why we are asking for feedback, when we do

• Keep your feedback confidential

• Publish summaries on our website of how customer feedback is used

• Provide a range of opportunities to get involved in scrutinising our services.

Access and diversity

We'll:

• Provide fair access to our services and treat you with respect

• Make responsible adjustments for our customers and stakeholders with disabilities to ensure our services are fair and accessible

• Provide translation and interpretation services for essential information on request.