Housing Association and frequent requests for access to my home.

[BloomsButtons]

I live with my DH and 3 of our DC in a HA property.

Each year the number of visits we have to allow access for increases but this year takes the biscuit.

We've had a man out to do the gas safety check, fine this absolutely needs to be done. Then a request for his supervisor to come and assess his work. Then a request for the supervisors boss to come and assess the work. 3 people in just a few weeks.

Last week the solar panels were checked and the hot water system. Now a letter asking for permission for a surveyor to be allowed in to carry out a full internal and external survey. Our house is 10 years old.

Would I be within my rights as a tenant to refuse this visit?! I can't face yet another stranger traipsing through and around my home. The letter does not say the visit is compulsory, just they'd be grateful for our cooperation.

Technically yes, you can refuse visits. However, I wouldn't refuse the visit from the surveyor, as it may mean they can stop any minor disrepair from developing into problems for you as the resident. If I didn't want excessive visits I would, however, have turned down the extra gas safety visitors

this has been experienced by many tenants.

a post of mine from earlier this year
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HelenaDove Thu 07-Mar-19 16:54:22

HelenaDove Sun 10-Feb-19 15:31:48

We have had FOUR letters since New Year wanting access for some reason or another and its only early February.

To discuss changes to the flat doors for fire safety

Access so they can do a gas safety check (we are electric but still have to have it done)

The company doing the doors wanted access to tenants flats in the WEEK commencing 7th Jan. They wouldnt even narrow it down to a day let alone a time.
Then no one turned up.
They also wrote to us last August saying they MAY knock on our doors to do a check on a certain day. MAY is even written in bold in the letter so wasnt even for certain.

Yet moaned when they couldnt get access to some of the flats.

They wont be able to get access to flats all at even roughly the same time. Because many people work shifts. A lot of tenants who are working are in precarious low status jobs and fear taking time off especially if its zero hours which lots of them are There has been an erosion of workers rights and SH tenants dont have a lot of rights either so are often caught between a rock and a hard place.

We had a paramedic on our estate who gave up his tenancy and moved in with a relative because the HA were so inflexible with when they wanted to do things and he just couldnt keep taking time off.

I know some HAs can be flexible but ours is 8.am to 6pm Monday to Friday for access checks visits etc and refuse to budge from that.
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HelenaDove Thu 07-Mar-19 00:14:48

And here we go with no 5. Another access visit this time for a stock condition survey.

The main surveyor will be to look to put you on replacement program for major works and also possibly for mortgage assessment (HA’s do have mortgages and as part of financial assessment have to make sure that he assessed are worth what is declared).
Your house may be only 10 years old, but kitchens and bathrooms are replaced more often than Private (The one I worked for replaced kitchens approx every 10 years - mine is 20 years old this year!)

Ten years might be due to a warranty on the building.

Upside of social housing: more reasonable rents and secure tenancy.
Downside of social housing: they do it all properly which involves your cooperation. What happens if you just say no?

@gamerchick @x2boys

Theres co operation and then there is the risk of a tenant losing his/her job if they take too much time off.

OP are they flexible with the appointments. Do they offer morning or afternoon or evenings or Saturdays?

www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/mum-blasts-clarion-s-shocking-homes-after-she-s-moved-four-times-1-6089476

A single mother has been forced to move home four times by her housing association due to "major disrepair issues" in each property

Samantha Trent. Has not been able to properly unpack since the move, due to ongoing problems with the flat.Samantha Trent. Has not been able to properly unpack since the move, due to ongoing problems with the flat.

Samantha Trent has had mushrooms sprouting off furniture, subsidence, "ice cold" bedrooms and floorboards she couldn't walk on for fear they'd collapse beneath her.

In recent years the postal worker has been shunted from flats in Tufnell Park Road, to Penn Road, then Hungerford Road.

As of April, she's been living in a Shaftesbury Road flat with windows painted and nailed shut and suspected asbestos. Clarion has apologised for this "highly unusual case".

But Samantha, who pays £140 a week in rent and gets £40 in housing benefit, told the Gazette: "It's shocking because I shouldn't have been living in any of the properties. I'm suffering from depression and this is making me feel really ill. I feel really deflated and let down. All I'm doing is calling and repeating myself but nothing's happening."

The 43-year-old claims she's taken all her annual leave waiting for repair workers who either don't turn up or cancel last minute

She added: "When operators turn up, they just say: 'We can't do that, Clarion won't pay for that.'

"It's all to do with money. Clarion owns a lot of property around London but they don't maintain them. It's a big mess.

"My old property in Hungerford Road would have cost about £50,000 to repair but Clarion will probably auction it privately."

Clarion told the Gazette it hasn't sold any of its properties in Islington in three years and would only do so following a full review.

Samantha and her daughters Olivia, 15, and Yasmin, 22, viewed their current address in December. The mother claims she identified disrepair issues that day that still haven't been fixed. "Outside my bedroom window there's black stuff hanging out," she claimed. "An operator said: 'That's asbestos.' I have odd lino, two different types, on the floor of my new home and we have damp in the communal hallway."

A Clarion spokesperson said: "We apologise for the inconvenience the resident has experienced. The wellbeing and safety of our residents is always our first priority and in some circumstances the best option is a permanent move to another property.

"We invest significantly in maintaining our properties to a good standard and we have a £15million programme of planned investment in our existing homes in Islington"

You dont have to allow the checks after the gas boiler service, at least not for the large HA I work for, so that might be worth checking for next year.
The service itself is obviously a legal requirement.

From an OPEN blog.

I’m posting my complaint to sanctuary in the hope someone can tell me where to go…they cost me my job in jan 2015 as i was in a new job on probation and had to take 6 days off work in a month as they left me and my daughter with no hot water for a month because they kept not turning up or sending out wrong people to fix it, then took me to court for eviction in feb as i couldnt pay rent

This complaint now as u will see has been going on a yr, iv complained to 3 manager whole have all never got back to me. I emailed them 3 weeks ago as a manager told me in September she was dealing with.my complaint but has not contacted me since, emailed again yesterday to be told someone will contact u! Im at the end of my tether.

On November 3rd 2015 I reported a leak where water was coming in to my living room from underneath the coving. The man I spoke to said he would get a plumber out and I told him there were no pipes there but he still sent a plumber.

Following this between November 2015– July 2016 I have had 12 appointments with sanctuary maintenance staff because you sent out the wrong people, parts had not been ordered or people were sent who didn’t even know what they were supposed to be doing, I have attached a list of appointments and what was done each time.

In April I made a complaint to a manager Craig as it had been going on 5 months, every time it rained i had water coming in my living room. I have chronic asthma and this was causing mould and since February I had been seriously ill and admitted to hospital 3 times and was due to have surgery on 6th April and I was concerned I would have open wounds and having dirty water coming in.

Craig advised I could claim compensation for lost time/earnings/damages and promised to chase. On 7th may following another 3 appointments and nothing being done I went to environmental health as I had now had infections in my wounds from my surgery, in a lot of pain and still having to mop dirty water.

On 8th June i called sanctuary again as environmental health have also been chasing he is getting no response either, i am told you cannot bring the appointment forward and i literally broke down on the phone as i have now had water coming in my house 7 months, im in pain from major surgery and nothing is any closer to being resolved.

I complain to a manager Joe who tells me the job was cancelled!
Now the job was finally completed on 15th July by simply painting sealant on the balcony which Joe advised David bizzells manager knew of this problem as other houses had the same problem.

I am amazed i have been left this long for a simple problem sanctuary were already aware of, It’s disgusting you left me a whole winter with asthma with rain coming in and following surgery when i should have been resting i was mopping dirty water.

Now the problem should be resolved but i have been left with damage and mould to the wall, coving and curtain rail/baton due to 8 months of water, pictures attached. i am told this will need painting with a special sealant first to stop the water marks keep showing through. So are sanctuary going to come and do that and repaint or do i have to do this? I would also like to claim compensation for the time you wasted which cost me money off work for every appointment, the stress of what you put me through and cost of sorting the damaged caused by the water as you can see from the pictures I have a damp patch at the bottom of the coving and across the top of the whole wall and damp and flaking paint.

This is standard appauling service from Sanctuary repairs, in january 2015 you cost me my job leaving me with no hot water for a month and me having 6 days off work because you kept sending wrong people out and i had to go to the mp to resolve and clearly nothing has changed."

Another letter for another asset survey . This time its only a TWO DAY call rather than a week long call. So they are improving