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Minutes of Leaseholder Forum held Saturday 11 March 2006 at the YMCA, Forest Road, E17
Minutes of Leaseholder Forum held Saturday 11 March 2006 at the YMCA, Forest Road, E17
1. Introduction
Hassett Auguste, Ascham Homes’ Chief Executive welcomed everybody and introduced members of Ascham Homes Executive Management Team and staff.
Hassett explained the format of the meeting, dealt with the housekeeping issues such as what to do should the fire alarm sound and introduced Cathy Deplessis, Ascham Homes’ lead officer for the forthcoming Audit Commission inspection.
2. Inspection Briefing
Cathy Deplessis explained how Ascham Homes are preparing for the next Audit Commission inspection. The inspectors will be on site at Ascham Homes from 12th to 23rd June, but have already started to look at what we do and how we do it.
Cathy explained that the inspectors would be assessing Ascham Homes against standards set out in their ‘Key Lines of Enquiry’. Although Ascham Homes is performing well against the Key Lines of Enquiry we are working hard to improve further. Tenants and leaseholders are helping with the preparations by carrying out ‘mystery shopping’ to test our services and give us feedback.
There were no questions at the end of her briefing so Cathy introduced John Lowe, Project Officer for Ascham Homes.
3. Best Value Review of Right to Buy & Leasehold Services
John Lowe presented the finding of the recent critical review he had carried out into how Ascham Homes’ provides Right to Buy and Leasehold Services. John explained that the review had included working with a Service Development Group of leaseholders. The main findings of the review were that Ascham Homes needs to improve leaseholders’ satisfaction with the value for money for the services we provide and leaseholder satisfaction with repairs. John also explained that although a recent survey had showed that Ascham Homes’ leaseholders were generally less satisfied with services than tenants, our leaseholders showed a relatively high level of satisfaction compared with other boroughs.
John told the Forum that in approximately 6 months time he would be calling the Service Development Group together again in order to assess how far Ascham Homes services to leaseholders have improved.
Question & Answer session on the Best Value Review
Q. A contractor asked me to fill in a satisfaction survey for a big repair job carried out to our guttering. I told him I couldn’t tell whether the repair had been done properly or not as I couldn’t see what he had done. Why wasn’t anyone from Ascham Homes there to check the work?
A. As the works were carried out under a scheme paid for by the Major Repairs Allowance (MRA), the works should have been checked. If this did not happen we will investigate why. The satisfaction survey should only have been for you to let us know whether you were happy with the conduct of the contractor, whether they left the site clean & tidy, whether they were polite and so on.
John then informed the Forum that Ascham Homes is changing the way that it carries out satisfaction monitoring, to prevent people being asked to complete forms too often.
Mary Nuako, Ascham Homes’ Head of Finance told the Forum that now our repairs are carried out under a partnering agreement it is in the contractors’ best interest to carry out jobs well first time. Mary also told the Forum that from April the Right to Buy & Leasehold Services’ team would be able to send quarterly lists of repairs carried out over the previous few months, on request.
4. General Question & Answer session led by Hassett Auguste
Q. If a repair has to be carried out 3 or 4 times before it is done correctly, are leaseholders charged each time?
A. No, leaseholders should only be charged once. If a job hasn’t been done properly the contactor should return and do the repair again at no extra cost. If any leaseholders feel they have been charged more than once for the same job they should tell us so that we can investigate & correct leaseholders service charges.
Q. Why is it so difficult for leaseholders to report a repair? As soon as I say I’m a leaseholder Ascham Direct say that I’m responsible even though I’m trying to report a problem with the communal water tank in the roof. The staff in Right to Buy & Leasehold Services team are the only ones who listen to me & they normally have to sort it out.
A. I’m sorry if you’ve been having problems. Leaseholders should be treated in the same way as tenants when they report a repair. The only difference is that leaseholders are responsible for their own internal repairs. If any leaseholder has any problems reporting a repair or they are not happy with any part of our service they should let us know so that we can put things right.
One of the things that came out of the Best Value Review is that we are now holding workshops for all teams within Ascham Homes to ensure that all staff know what we should be doing for leaseholders.
Q. Why am I paying more now for a caretaking service that I think is poorer? People are urinating on the doorstep and the caretakers seem to just leave it.
A. I am sorry if you are not happy with the service. In most areas of the borough the caretaking service has improved but we need to know where we are not providing a good service so that we can improve it. We will look at the problem at your block and see what we can do to improve the situation. Our service needs to be better than you have experienced.
Q. Why do I have to pay for a caretaker when there is nothing for them to do at my block? I never see a caretaker. The residents carry out most of the cleaning.
A. You are being charged for work that the caretakers do on your estate, not just at your block. They don’t only do cleaning, but they report repairs & bulbs that need changing, carry out litter-picking as well as pruning shrubs and so on. Where residents take their turn to clean some of the communal areas, it means the caretakers have to spend less time there so service charges are lower.
Q. I’ve got a family of five living above me. They have laminate flooring, which makes it very noisy. Can you consider giving permission for laminate flooring only for properties on the ground floor?
A. We will consider it, but we need to consider the rights of people living in the properties because their tenancy or lease agreements give them the right to make reasonable improvements. We will look into it and see if we need to change tenancy and lease agreements.
5. Surgeries
Hassett closed the Question & Answer session to allow leaseholders to attend the various surgeries to discuss their individual concerns.
6. Close
The Leaseholder Forum closed at 1pm. Although fewer leaseholders than normal attended, feedback from leaseholders on the day was that they had enjoyed the event and found it useful.
Waltham Forest Leaseholders Action Association
The association is still looking for members and needs someone who would be willing to act as Secretary for the association. If you are interested please contact Mr Lea Hart via the Tenants Resource Centre, 195 Wood Street, Walthamstow, London E17 3NU. Or you can send an e-mail to leajameshart@aol.com or phone 07958 531366.
1. Introduction
Hassett Auguste, Ascham Homes’ Chief Executive welcomed everybody and introduced members of Ascham Homes Executive Management Team and staff.
Hassett explained the format of the meeting, dealt with the housekeeping issues such as what to do should the fire alarm sound and introduced Cathy Deplessis, Ascham Homes’ lead officer for the forthcoming Audit Commission inspection.
2. Inspection Briefing
Cathy Deplessis explained how Ascham Homes are preparing for the next Audit Commission inspection. The inspectors will be on site at Ascham Homes from 12th to 23rd June, but have already started to look at what we do and how we do it.
Cathy explained that the inspectors would be assessing Ascham Homes against standards set out in their ‘Key Lines of Enquiry’. Although Ascham Homes is performing well against the Key Lines of Enquiry we are working hard to improve further. Tenants and leaseholders are helping with the preparations by carrying out ‘mystery shopping’ to test our services and give us feedback.
There were no questions at the end of her briefing so Cathy introduced John Lowe, Project Officer for Ascham Homes.
3. Best Value Review of Right to Buy & Leasehold Services
John Lowe presented the finding of the recent critical review he had carried out into how Ascham Homes’ provides Right to Buy and Leasehold Services. John explained that the review had included working with a Service Development Group of leaseholders. The main findings of the review were that Ascham Homes needs to improve leaseholders’ satisfaction with the value for money for the services we provide and leaseholder satisfaction with repairs. John also explained that although a recent survey had showed that Ascham Homes’ leaseholders were generally less satisfied with services than tenants, our leaseholders showed a relatively high level of satisfaction compared with other boroughs.
John told the Forum that in approximately 6 months time he would be calling the Service Development Group together again in order to assess how far Ascham Homes services to leaseholders have improved.
Question & Answer session on the Best Value Review
Q. A contractor asked me to fill in a satisfaction survey for a big repair job carried out to our guttering. I told him I couldn’t tell whether the repair had been done properly or not as I couldn’t see what he had done. Why wasn’t anyone from Ascham Homes there to check the work?
A. As the works were carried out under a scheme paid for by the Major Repairs Allowance (MRA), the works should have been checked. If this did not happen we will investigate why. The satisfaction survey should only have been for you to let us know whether you were happy with the conduct of the contractor, whether they left the site clean & tidy, whether they were polite and so on.
John then informed the Forum that Ascham Homes is changing the way that it carries out satisfaction monitoring, to prevent people being asked to complete forms too often.
Mary Nuako, Ascham Homes’ Head of Finance told the Forum that now our repairs are carried out under a partnering agreement it is in the contractors’ best interest to carry out jobs well first time. Mary also told the Forum that from April the Right to Buy & Leasehold Services’ team would be able to send quarterly lists of repairs carried out over the previous few months, on request.
4. General Question & Answer session led by Hassett Auguste
Q. If a repair has to be carried out 3 or 4 times before it is done correctly, are leaseholders charged each time?
A. No, leaseholders should only be charged once. If a job hasn’t been done properly the contactor should return and do the repair again at no extra cost. If any leaseholders feel they have been charged more than once for the same job they should tell us so that we can investigate & correct leaseholders service charges.
Q. Why is it so difficult for leaseholders to report a repair? As soon as I say I’m a leaseholder Ascham Direct say that I’m responsible even though I’m trying to report a problem with the communal water tank in the roof. The staff in Right to Buy & Leasehold Services team are the only ones who listen to me & they normally have to sort it out.
A. I’m sorry if you’ve been having problems. Leaseholders should be treated in the same way as tenants when they report a repair. The only difference is that leaseholders are responsible for their own internal repairs. If any leaseholder has any problems reporting a repair or they are not happy with any part of our service they should let us know so that we can put things right.
One of the things that came out of the Best Value Review is that we are now holding workshops for all teams within Ascham Homes to ensure that all staff know what we should be doing for leaseholders.
Q. Why am I paying more now for a caretaking service that I think is poorer? People are urinating on the doorstep and the caretakers seem to just leave it.
A. I am sorry if you are not happy with the service. In most areas of the borough the caretaking service has improved but we need to know where we are not providing a good service so that we can improve it. We will look at the problem at your block and see what we can do to improve the situation. Our service needs to be better than you have experienced.
Q. Why do I have to pay for a caretaker when there is nothing for them to do at my block? I never see a caretaker. The residents carry out most of the cleaning.
A. You are being charged for work that the caretakers do on your estate, not just at your block. They don’t only do cleaning, but they report repairs & bulbs that need changing, carry out litter-picking as well as pruning shrubs and so on. Where residents take their turn to clean some of the communal areas, it means the caretakers have to spend less time there so service charges are lower.
Q. I’ve got a family of five living above me. They have laminate flooring, which makes it very noisy. Can you consider giving permission for laminate flooring only for properties on the ground floor?
A. We will consider it, but we need to consider the rights of people living in the properties because their tenancy or lease agreements give them the right to make reasonable improvements. We will look into it and see if we need to change tenancy and lease agreements.
5. Surgeries
Hassett closed the Question & Answer session to allow leaseholders to attend the various surgeries to discuss their individual concerns.
6. Close
The Leaseholder Forum closed at 1pm. Although fewer leaseholders than normal attended, feedback from leaseholders on the day was that they had enjoyed the event and found it useful.
Waltham Forest Leaseholders Action Association
The association is still looking for members and needs someone who would be willing to act as Secretary for the association. If you are interested please contact Mr Lea Hart via the Tenants Resource Centre, 195 Wood Street, Walthamstow, London E17 3NU. Or you can send an e-mail to leajameshart@aol.com or phone 07958 531366.