to think housing associations are going to have to start doing checks outside office hours.

[JenniferBooth]

The amount of checks HAs have to do is increasing
Gas safety checks are once a year and have been around for a while. Electric checks are every five years so not as often.

Last month a new rule came in for fire door checks. fireconsultancyspecialists.co.uk/fire-safety-regulations-2022-fire-door-requirements-from-23-jan-2023/

There seems to be some confusion whether its once a year or every three months but tenants will also need to be in for this if the door of their actual flat is a fire door so they can test it to see if it closes by itself.

There will highly likely be checks brought in for mould so that will be another inspection that tenants will have to be in for.

Tenants should not be expected to use up annual leave to facilitate all this so either employment legislation needs to change so tenants have a right to time off for all this in law or they need to start working round tenants schedules.

Well people who have their own properties have problems with getting repair/maintenance workers too, it’s not just rented properties that have issues ffs

You dont get threatened with eviction for a check that isnt even mandatory. You dont get told that you have to wear a mask for three hours and if you dont the engineer wont come in and will say that you refused access. And YES i can prove all this because they were stupid enough to put it all in writing.

it’s not just rented properties that have issues ffs

Please show me my post where i said it was only rented properties

I had my own home! Never had problems with tradespeople coming to do work - and I worked regular hours then! Small jobs at my HA home that I get tradespeople to do - again, no problem. Getting the HA to do repairs, getting maintenance done without a whole load of issues is impossible. And I had a threatening letter recently as the HA claimed to have been trying to get hold of me, when they clearly hadn’t. I would love to own my own place again, but that’s not going to happen unless I have a lottery win.

We don't have to be in for anything. They have a key.

I think part of the problem with ours is that the head office is a couple of hours away and many of their maintenance team live over that way. When you own you go for local people. When we had renovations last year, the poor blokes were driving an hour and a half to get to us for 8am. Their journeys home were over two hours sometimes. We gave the site supervisor a key, but the HA themselves don’t hold keys.

@BaconIsEvil 😂😂😂😂

you don't think home owners get told between 8&5 (or whatever)

yes, there's a bit more flexibility on which day, but generally not really, they're busy. They'll offer a day they have a slot free & are in your area.

Just wear the mask under your chin until they arrive and they will be none the wiser! We own, in the last month this house has cost us in the region of 5k, you don't have that risk. Instead you pay a small monthly fee to include all maintenance, we also have to be available at the time the trades can come otherwise the house would fall into disrepair. Since lockdown the trades have been that busy they hold the cards and aren't actively looking for work so a HA maintained job will be less appealing than being able to name their price to me. Round here they could raise their prices by inflation and would still get work the same can't be said for a salary job.

The majority of our parcels are delivered by the same Evri driver after 7pm as he is at uni during the day pretty sure he lives at home. We live not far outside of a uni town and I would say 50% plus of the shop staff are uni students working zero hours

I take it you know you've actually got the appointment though and then don't get threatened with your gas cut off and/or eviction for not keeping an appointment you didn't even know you had?

@Grumpybutfunny

to give you an idea about how different it is, I had workmen round for the 7th time on Friday, they still dont have the part and have been told by the HA that its too expensive and to find a work around. This is on the 7th visit, not the 2nd or the 3rd. I dont get a choice in this.

As it was they did manage to find a workround, then they found asbestos.

Which cheered us all up.

As a homeowner, if it had taken a tradesmen 7 times and over 3 months, I could fire them and find someone else. I would have had a choice in which method to use.

If it helps we are onto the 10th visit from the electrician who just keeps finding more problems and we are only in phase 1 of our current renovation. I'm working from home tomorrow so he can rewire some more of the house. It would have been easier to rewire the whole house in one go but we didn't find all the problems at once. We have home cover so know the joys of them keep coming back to fix something like the heating that should really be replaced. Best bit is once it's finished is likely DH will want to sell it and buy another project!

No, it doesnt help, but it is slightly different, mine have all been for the same problem and just the mistakes not only the HA have made but the trades company as well.

It is different for homeowners than renters, whether those renters are private or in social housing. Homeowners have choices that renters dont have, likewise, renters dont have the same expenses as homeowners, so it does swing in roundabouts.

@gazpachosoupday Ridiculous

@gazpachosoupday

have been told by the HA that its too expensive and to find a work around

This is my biggest issue with HA repairs/maintenance the poor standard of fixtures/fittings & workmanship.

I pay full rent which isn't cheap for social housing in my area (my 2 bed flat with no garden is more expensive than my niece's 4 bed end terrace with a huge wrap around garden & drive with the LA) so don't think I should have to accept sub-standard maintenance & "work arounds" because the correct fixture/fitting/part is deemed too expensive.

I had them in replacing my bathroom ceiling on Friday - I was WFH in living room, went to make a coffee to discover the guy using cutting tools in my hallway! I went ballistic... where do they think that's remotely acceptable just because he couldn't be arsed carrying the materials up & down the 14 steps at my front door to cut outside!

Well there are several things at work here. HAs have additional obligations to ensure the safety and well being of their tenants. This is a good thing.

If you are not paying directly for these things or organising them then unfortunately you will have limited control over when they are done. I assume HAs could offer weekend or out of hours visits but this will be more expensive and eventually work its way down to your rent or service charge. As others have pointed out home owners also often have limited control over a lot of these things - I recently ended up having to supervise four days of workmen to sort out a replacement washing machine and a linked kitchen drainage issue.

As for threatening letters. This is not meant to be rude but I assume they are aiming at the lowest common denominator - freeholders and landlords do have a legal right to force entry to a property for safety reasosns. I assume to save time the HA are quoting this right upfront in anticipation of anyone who is "difficult".

I am chair of our privately owned block of flats freehold company and our building manager usually reckons whenever we have to do something mandatory there are three types of people - those who respond in good time and arrange something, those who take several reminder letters or calls to get something done and those who do nothing unless they are literally forced to.

@Ginmonkeyagain I rang the police on 101 about the harassment of something that is not mandatory in social housing. And the mask threat of putting us down as denying access if we dont wear one. They put me through to the crime bureau section.

I respond in good time and arrange something. See my post about fire doors. And a lot of the time when i do arrange it swiftly the fuckers dont turn up

It is NOT mandatory They are in breach of the protection of eviction act 1977

The door to our flat is a self closing fire door. It was fitted in March 2019 We were the ONLY ones that co operated. Other tenants refused. Our thanks for this? We were told we would have to share the key to the cupboard of our electric meter with the druggie who lived downstairs at the time. The doors on the cupboards which house the electric meters were changed as well.
Fast forward to 2022 and our HA sent letters out saying our front doors would need to be changed to fire doors. Ours had already been done but they wouldnt accept this. DH had a heated discussion with a housing assistant who insisted it had to be changed DH pointed out that if there was something wrong with it you get the same company back to fix the mistake A different contractor was used this time. I spotted one of them in the car park told him what the HA said and he came up and took a look. "there is nothing wrong with this we cant better it" he said.
So please stop assuming that social housing tenant = obstructive.

Well I am not going to argue wit you about whether your HA is shit or not. Just observing that from the other side arranging mandatory works and checks can be like herding cats and gets very expensive.

A small story. A few years ago we had a new door security system installed in our block. Everyone was emailed and written to saying the door locks would be activiated in a months time on XX date. Before that all residents would need to issued with key fobs. They needed to ring or email the building manager and to either arrange to collect and sign for the fobs or arrange to have them posted to them by recorded delivery.

Typed signs were also put on every main door of the building and the notice boards with the same instruction.

A week before the doors were due to activiated those who has not collected fobs were emailed, written to and phoned to say that on the day the doors were activated a member of staff from the building management would be on site for people to collect their fobs.

Day after the door locks were activited four residents rang the building manager in high dudgeon demanding to know why they had been locked out of the building.

Sounds like you did all you could and you also wernt expecting them to share keys with the local druggie

No one is assuming HA tenant = Obstructive, but in every block of flats there will be people who are, it is the same in privately owned blocks believe me!

How well or not this is dealt with is often determined by how good or flexible the housing association is.

I imagine large HAs may take centralised one fits all approach, which can mean the "good" tenants will get overly harsh communications.

Electric meter cupboards often all use the same key - an FB1 or FB2 key - availble for about £1.50 on Amazon. I am not sure why you would have to share one with a "local druggie"

We were told to And you make sure you come with all the materials to start the job BEFORE you start the job Its called being a proffessional
My friend is still waiting for the control panel at the front of his building to be replaced when they started replacing the flat intercoms. There has been a piece of cardboard with ON ORDER written on it in place of the control panel for the last FIVE WEEKS.

And it is not up to tenants to get a fucking key from Amazon That is part of THEIR job which they insisted on doing What about elderly tenants who dont online shop.

Mate - I'm not your HA - go shout at them.