Anyone work for a Housing Association ? Is this a reasonable number of staff?

[MedievalMadness]

I live in a flat run by a small housing assoc (500 properties , mainly flats). It is absolutely chaotic with no department having any idea what other depts are doing/have done/need to do. To me there seems a ridiculous amount of staff. I'm wondering if this is because so many of them are ineffective, so they need more and more people to try run things . I've never come across a more ineffectively run organisation in my life. Nothing gets done without an almighty battle, there seem to be perpetual meetings, staff wandering around , appointments cancelled, forgotten , random people calling to do repairs at all times etc. There are the following staff:
CEO, director of operations, director of finance & resources, HR & resources manager, Administrator, finance manager, finance officer, housing manager, housing officer, community engagement officer, property services manager, compliance officer, 2 x compliance technicians , property surveyor/clerk of works, 2 x facilities coordinators,repairs operative , sheltered housing manager, deputy sheltered housing manager, 10 x housing support workers .

If anyone works for a HA or knows about them, does this seem normal for the size of the HA?

Jennifer. The tenants who are out at work are driven mad by all the contractors messing them about but the weed smokers/gamers often don't want to let anyone in so I guess that presents a problem too.

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.

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

@MedievalMadness yes they will be unlikely to want to let them in especially if they are growing the stuff

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/3613043-housing-association-and-frequent-requests-for-access-to-my-home

Jennifer. The more you write the more like our HA it sounds like. I wonder if there are any in the country that are properly run and not corrupt?

CEO, director of operations, director of finance & resources, HR & resources manager - makes sense. One boss, two for overall responsibility for everything else.
Administrator - Only one administrator? She'll be rushed off her feet constantly.
Finance manager, finance officer - yup, one handling payroll and purchasing, the other doing everything else.

Housing manager, housing officer - sounds about right.

Community engagement officer - Somebody has to deal with the complaints about anything and everything. And it's a sheltered provision, so this is an important part of resident welfare/wellbeing.

Property services manager - 500 homes won't repair themselves.

Compliance officer, 2 x compliance technicians - got to ensure everything is actually done legally and safely.

Property surveyor/clerk of works - yup, can't expect the administrator to survey sites or building projects.

2 x facilities coordinators - you do want heating/lighting and bin collections, along with the lifts working.

Repairs operative - one bloke doing all the smaller repairs doesn't seem like enough.

Sheltered housing manager, deputy sheltered housing manager, 10 x housing support workers - residents need their day to day safety and welfare taken care of, especially with 50 on each SW's workload.

Our HA is totally chaotic. Still waiting on paperwork started in Feb that was 'due any day now'. It's necessary to formally complain to get anything done. Bonkers

Maybe at the top, but my SIL works for a HA and his salary is certainly not astronomical, certainly not for the workload and stress he gets.

BigGreen. Same. Only making a formal complaint gives you a chance of getting anything done.

NeverDropYourMooncup. Thanks for this. The only thing is the whole HA is appallingly run despite there being only 500 properties. It’s not safe, it’s not secure, it doesn’t meet all legal requirements and the transparency over finances and contracts is non existent. Major issues regarding non compliance, conflicts of interest and all sorts of dodgy financial goings on have been reported to SHAC after info requested by a group of tenants were constantly ignored. The HA tried to get them to take the articles of SHACs findings which were put on their website taken off, as they said the findings had been dismissed by the Housing Tribunal but couldn’t provide any evidence of this to them. I think there are is a lot of lining of pockets going on at the tenants expense.

The communal areas are disgusting. We asked to see the cleaning schedule so we know what is supposed to be done and the frequency. They offered to provide this in March but reminders for a copy, are just ignored. We have all the right staff in place but Lord only knows what they spend their time actually doing.

@MedievalMadness my DH uses a mobility scooter and towards the end of 2017 (November) our housing officer (housing association) pinned a tort notice to the wall telling him to get rid of the scooter by 23rd Dec (Christmas, lovely eh? or they would take it and destroy it This was accompanied by a letter a few days later saying that unless it was removed they would take it and sell it. They left us worried and stressed for weeks in the run up to Christmas and wouldnt budge on it..............until i started posting screen shots of the tort notice on twitter with text about what was happening

It was ok for the druggie to store a can of petrol under the stairs though

Jennifer. That’s shocking.

Okay, I work in property management but not for a HA. We have about 40-50 properties per manager, but we deal with the whole management process, including inspections, compliance and budgets, so it does sound like your HA might not be delegating effectively and hiring extra staff. HA have regulatory requirements to comply with, especially if they own sheltered accommodation., so that might be the reason for the number of support workers.

If they own leasehold flats they have to comply with their Section 20 consultation process for major works (like roof repairs or replacement) or are unable to recover the monies through service charges (or reserve funds). You can get a retrospective dispensation from the Court, but there's no guarantee of success and I have seen it being refused for emergency roof repairs. HA also have to be members of the Housing Ombudsman, ARLA is a governing body for residential lettings agents, housing officers usually are members of the CIH. Tbf we don't have a community engagement officer as property managers would deal with that.

Lately it's been a nightmare to arrange work as well, due to contractors higher fees and reliability and we are seeing a lot of stress in the staff so, it might be their issue too. Housing officers tend to have a quick turnover from what I can see (not my direct field).

Hope that helps.

We have a housing association based on our road, it's a big one, I have got to know the ceo quite well and we often have coffee (I'm in a related field with common clients) and the stories I hear ... anonymous of course, so many clients simply cannot look after themselves staff spend days trying to do things that should take an hour at most. Trades are sent to fix things and they have to persuade them to let them in, uncover a can of worms and don't have enough time for rest of jobs etc.

But but but its the HA who chooses who to allocate the flats to in the first place
Its the consequences of buying into the "welfarisation" of social housing.

John Boughton (author of Municipal Dreams The Rise and Fall of Council Housing) on the welfarisation of council housing.

//www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-rise-and-fall-of-council-housing-56139

Inthe 1980s, residualisation may have been a partly unintended consequence of housing policies pursued with varying ideological intent

Since 2010, and more so since the return of single-party Conservative government in 2015, we’ve seen something further: welfarisation – ‘a conception of social housing as a very small, highly residualised sector catering only for the very poorest, and those with additional social “vulnerabilities”, on a short-term “ambulance” basis

Gas safety check is due end of July If there is a heatwave at this time i will not be lifting a finger. Contractor will have to move stuff to get to the gas meter. He is paid to sweat. Im not. Fucking housing association should have thought of that before turning this place into a sauna