londoner
Housing Association resident
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Comment on: Sustainable Housing Awards 2009
Great. Some really good projects.
Now what we need is for someone, anyone, to provide funding for retrofitting all the millions of hard to heat homes, the ones with no lofts and no cavity walls. The old social housing estates - blocks of flats where so many residents find running the central heating in winter to be unaffordable, so they shiver in their homes.
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Posts (9)
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Posted in: SET UP A NEW HOUSING ASSOCIATION TENANT'S GROUP JUST FOR HOUSING ASSOCIATION TENANT'S
Sheer exhaustion, overwhelmed by too many things to cope with at once.
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Posted in: SET UP A NEW HOUSING ASSOCIATION TENANT'S GROUP JUST FOR HOUSING ASSOCIATION TENANT'S
It is not unusual to only have a small proportion of the people whose doors you knocked on turn up to the meeting. Where I am, there are over 300 residents. If there is a major issue they are worried about, then approximately 10% - 20% appear at the meeting about it (eg issue such as changes to the tenancy agreement). The tip of the iceberg arrives. It is not possible to hold one meeting at a time that suits everyone - families are cooking for kids at 6pm, others are not in from work or just in and too tired for a meeting. Some who don't work can more easily make it to daytime meetings. At 7pm another lot of people are just in from work, cooking, whatever. There is no right time, is my experience.
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Posted in: help needed with 3rd stage complaint
It varies from one HA to another. Ours takes responsibility for rats and mice in the communal areas, and inside flats. I would definitely expect any landlord to be responsible for ensuring that the flats are reasonably rodent-proof - no gaps around pipes etc.
One good reason for having the landlord responsible is that if they are in one flat, they will get into all of them and the communal areas. If residents are putting down their own poison etc, it is hazardous.
On our estate there is a brand new conversion - it was handed over to a tenant with water leaking in, the central heating piping ending in mid-air so no circuit, no heating, and with mice in residence. There were no mice before the conversion work was done. A couple of months later part of the floor and ceiling in one room collapsed, due to a long-standing leak from two floors above. Floor joists had rotted I think.
I know that a lot of social housing landlords do take responsibility for rodent infestations, because a number of the larger pest control companies have the contracts - for inside flats or in communal areas. The only rats our local authority deals with are the ones in the streets, nesting under the trees, etc.
If the condition of the property is the reason rodents get in easily, it is up to the landlord to sort it out. It is a health hazard.
Also, a lot of RSL residents are living on benefits or other very low incomes, and cannot afford the local council 'affordable' contract pest control, let alone any other pest control company costs. So if one low income family cannot afford to deal with rodents, they will spread.
They carry a lot of diseases - if close to rivers, Weil's disease too.
It just makes sense to have the RSL deal with rodents.
The local council is not responsible for rodents in private properties - only in streets. What happens in council housing I don't know. -
Posted in: help needed with 3rd stage complaint
For our HA at least, mice are definitely a landlord responsibility. If the landlord does not deal with them, you call environmental health. They deal with ensuring there are no health hazards. They will be able to list what needs to be done to keep the mice out.
We had mice eating through a front door in a basement flat, and it was definitely the landlord who had to sort it out. They also have responsibility for rats, including in communal areas and courtyards.
The kitchen may not be up to Decent Homes standard, though this standard is full of loopholes. The government seemed to expect HAs to be full of goodwill and willing to exceed the minimal standards. Many are happy to do it well, some have had difficulty raising the money, even though they are selling loads of properties to finance it.
Other pests, for eg bed bugs, are not a landlord responsibility (unless they are there before you move in). The local authority has a service for bed bugs etc that you pay for. -
Posted in: help needed with 3rd stage complaint
You should be allowed to take someone with you to the Stage 3 complaint meeting - with our HA you cannot take a lawyer but can take someone for support.
Several of our residents found the environmental health officer invaluable, as s/he was also able to give advice as to what to ask for at the Stage 3 meeting, what not to let them get away with.
If works are needed that require you to move out for a few days or more, to bed and breakfast in a hotel or whatever, make sure they pay for the cost of meals eaten out as well.
Get a written agreement about any works, especially if they include creating dust, plaster dust, etc. This to include what work is to be done, how your possessions etc are to be protected (plastic sheeting AND new dust sheets), doors to other rooms sealed with tape, floor coverings, and post-works professional cleaning. Payment for any damage caused. Make sure there is a project manager responsible for ensuring all that is done, and if possible either make random checks yourself or have a trusted neighbour do this.
This all comes from the experiences of neighbours, after the Stage 3 complaint process resulted in the problem being taken seriously and actually dealt with.