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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

"Housing associations" Are you having problems?

161 replies

HelenaDove · 11/04/2017 23:19

Being covered in The Guardian,

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/11/no-one-calls-the-housing-association-repairs-line-theres-no-point#comment-96476391

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HelenaDove · 14/11/2017 16:22

Steve Topple‏Verified account
@MrTopple
3h3 hours ago
More Steve Topple Retweeted Steve Topple
This was finally sorted after 83 hours without the use of an oven, fridge freezer, washing machine or shower. Welcome to 21st century #SocialHousing that y'all calling for. Not fit for purpose.

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HelenaDove · 24/11/2017 00:52

HelenaDove Thu 23-Nov-17 23:11:22
DISABLED SALFORD MAN BARRED FROM HOUSING MOBILITY SCOOTER

Star date: 6th September 2017

MOBILITY SCOOTER RIGHTS AGAIN UNDER SCRUTINY AT SALIX HOMES

"You've got a right to freedom of movement but mine is curtailed..."

In what is now becoming a growing problem, a disabled man living in sheltered accommodation at Salix Homes' Heraldic Court says he has to charge his electric mobility scooter at his carer's as he is not allowed to charge or park it where he lives.

Three times a week he has to get a taxi to the carer's house to pick up his scooter so he can use it..."Without it I wouldn't be able to get out" he says "I struggle to walk fifty yards with my sticks."
Add message | Report | Message poster HelenaDove Thu 23-Nov-17 23:12:04
"James Hayes is chronically disabled and can hardly walk, due to a degenerative spinal injury in his lower lumbar... "I struggle to walk fifty or one hundred yards with my sticks" he explains "I have to stop and lean against a lamp post as most of the time I'm unaccompanied."

The only salvation for James is his mobility scooter, which allows him to get out and about and do his shopping in big stores while sitting down. In February it became necessary for him to move into sheltered accommodation at Salix Homes Heraldic Court, off Langley Road South, but was told that he couldn't take the scooter onto the property.

He left it in a yard for six weeks and then confronted Salix... "They said 'You can bring it on the premises but you can't charge it'" James recalls "I can charge it in my flat but that's on the second floor and I can't charge it in the communal area, so I've had to take it to my carer's house."

A Home Safety Guide, issued by Salix Homes last year, brought complaints and accusations of discrimination, with guidelines stating that "Mobility scooters must not be stored in communal areas in blocks and sheltered schemes" and "We do not currently provide charging facilities for mobility scooters..."*

Instead, James has had to charge the scooter at his carer's house, which entails getting a taxi for a double journey three times a week at £6 a time... "It's costing me loads and I haven't got a lot of money" he says "But without it I wouldn't be able to get out...You've got a right to freedom of movement but mine is curtailed without it."

Now James and his advocate, Bill Smid, are further confronting Salix with Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 which states that public bodies have a 'general duty' to 'have due regard to' a list of considerations, such as the need to advance equality of opportunity.

Indeed, James believes that Salix Homes could help its disabled tenants by looking at practical solutions. At Heraldic Court - scene of protests when Salix increased service charges recently** - there are three former bin bunkers which could be used as a mobility scooter parking and charging point... "It wouldn't need much to adapt them, put points in them and upgrade the facilities" he explains "I've put it to them but haven't had a reply."

He does have a meeting with Salix Homes on Friday, where it is hoped that common sense prevails...

"It's disappointing because I need the mobility scooter, I'm lost without it" James explains "It's been a nightmare.. "

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HunterofStars · 05/01/2018 07:29

Helena, those are Shock. How these HA aren't prosecuted I'll never know. Someone posted on my HA's FB wall to complain that thanks to them not repairing lights, her elderly mother was having to cook her evening meal in the dark and take her elderly father who has dementia to the downstairs toilet in the dark.

A friend of my dbro's has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair and her living room light blew. She phoned her HA and they said "No, we don't fix lights, can you do it yourself?" Dbro was furious and pointed out she was in a wheelchair and they reluctantly came out to fix it.

Where I live, we're having parking problems as people in the neighbouring houses are using our car park as they don't want to pay for onstreet parking, which means the HA residents who the car park is for can't park their cars there. It can be remedied easily by getting parking passes for the HA residents and removing the cars that shouldn't be there.

We also have a barrier to this car park which could be fixed so the car park is off limits to those not meant to park there. We've been told that they won't be fixing it and so the problem continues.

HelenaDove · 05/01/2018 16:28

Elderly/disabled tenants are seen as a nuisance. Sad Angry

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Domino20 · 08/01/2018 23:28

None of this suprises me (unfortunately). I am currently £5000 and nearly 4 years into a legal case against my HA landlord.
Unprofessional, incompetant, disorganised and dishonest. The service standards are an embarrassment. Of course, if you're a social tenant then you should just be happy to have a roof over your head!

HelenaDove · 08/01/2018 23:49

FIVE GRAND!!! And its taken 4 years Domino Thanks

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HelenaDove · 09/02/2018 00:38

13 comments
"A RESIDENT who contacted an under-fire housing association to ask for a workman was met by police instead.

It is the latest incident in a long-running saga that has pit residents and their housing association against one another.

As previously told in the Evening Times, energy saving works in Toryglen should have taken 12 weeks to carry out.

Now, 20 months later, workmen are still on site sorting out problems caused by the scheme, run by energy giant E-on at hundreds of Thistle Housing Association properties.

Resident Ian Paterson spotted that a cable containment box had burst and cables were hanging loose in his close.

He emailed Thistle HA to report the problem, expecting a workman to come out and fix the damage.

Instead, housing bosses called the police to accuse Mr Paterson of vandalism and two officers came to his door.

It is the second time Thistle's management have called police to Mr Paterson, having previously accused him of running a blog site detailing the issues with the botched works.

Mr Paterson described the move as a "poisonous attempt" on his character.

The energy works have turned into a three-way stooshie with residents of 608 properties stuck in the middle.

Using £8.5million of public money, including £3.4m of Scottish Government cash, E-on was supposed to have taken 12 weeks to carry out works such as rough casting, window upgrades and roof repairs in order to make homes more energy efficient.

Workers wracked up a catalogue of blunders, meaning some properties had to be visited on multiple occasions in order to undergo remedial works.

And residents, who have asked First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and council leader Susan Aitken for help, were left increasingly frustrated by the time delays and inconvenience.

In September last year E-on pulled all its staff off-site following a stand-up row between its staff and residents.

Each group pointed the finger at the other with locals claiming E.ON staff were verbally abusive towards them.

E.ON then claimed its workers felt under threat for residents.

There was also a deadlock between the energy firm and the housing association over payment, causing E.ON to appoint an independent adjudicator - which found in favour of the housing association.

The stalemate arose when a quantity surveyor appointed by Thistle would not sign off the works, so the association withheld a £3.4m payment to E-on.

At the time, our paper contacted E-on for comment but they refused to speak on the issue.

It is understood workmen are still on site sorting out snagging issues at properties.

Some residents have had as many as 13 completion dates for their homes but still have no end in sight.

A spokesperson from Thistle Housing Association said: “It is standard practice that any suspected acts of vandalism to our properties are reported to our community police team.

“It is our duty to ensure our residents live in a safe, well maintained community and we endeavour to do all we can to uphold our high standards throughout Toryglen.”

Glasgow City Council has said the local authority will commission an independent audit into the situation."

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HelenaDove · 09/02/2018 01:34

"Ian Paterson, who has helped spearhead the residents’ campaign was visited by police who were called by the housing association in relation to a blog that has been started by residents and which details the failings of the works programme so far.

He said: “The blog is written by a collection of residents. But it shows how poor communications have become that police are being called to pensioners such as myself."

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HelenaDove · 10/02/2018 02:47

"Housing associations have preserved an image of being more socially responsible than private landlords or local authorities. In fact, their drive to become more commercial and the way they treat tenants means they are often little better.

In response, housing association residents are getting organised to defend our rights. Our campaign group, Peabody Family Voice, launched in January after a consultation meeting organised by Peabody in late November left us angry. We are opposing the amalgamation of Peabody and Family Mosaic, two of London’s largest housing associations. The two organisations , but full amalgamation, which has yet to be approved by the Peabody board, would mean all Family Mosaic tenants becoming Peabody tenants.

Housing association merger will lead to social cleansing, warn tenants
Read more
The provision of social housing in London is at crisis point; many Londoners face increasing rents and deteriorating living conditions. There are 2m households in England renting from social landlords (pdf) and many experience neglect and poor services: research by Shelter published in January found that 48% of families in social housing who reported issues about poor or unsafe conditions felt ignored or were refused help.

At the November meeting, the anger of tenants and residents at the failure of the repairs and maintenance service and other issues was palpable. An example of the problems that tenants face is exemplified by the woman with cerebral palsy who lived in a Family Mosaic flat with severe rising damp and rodent infestation. In our short existence, Peabody Family Voice has been told a number of similar stories and we plan to compile a public record of them.

We are concerned that problems have been exacerbated by housing associations becoming bigger, more interested in property development than their social tenants. Many tenants also blame problems with repair services on outsourcing to commercial contractors. This is why we are calling for repairs to be brought back in-house.

All this is a far cry from the values of Peabody’s founder, George Peabody, who tried to alleviate the miserable conditions of the Victorian poor
Although many housing associations began as small and idealistic cooperatives, many now own tens of thousands of homes, and have become remote and bureaucratic. Tenants lack any consistent human relationship with housing association, staff and feel stonewalled by rule-bound call centres. In our recent to Brendan Sarsfield, chief executive of the Peabody group, we opposed amalgamation, arguing that this would exacerbate these trends, and called for more local staff and services.

show that hardly any of the new properties built by the leading housing associations in London are for genuine social rent. Most are for market rent or sale, shared ownership or so-called affordable rent, which is out of the reach of most social tenants. This justifies our belief that housing associations are putting profit over people. All this is a far cry from the of Peabody’s founder, George Peabody, who tried to alleviate the miserable conditions of the Victorian poor by building decent homes for them.

Many Peabody and Family Mosaic tenants feel their poor housing conditions are being ignored and are very concerned that, under the 2016 Housing Act, housing associations will raise rents towards market levels, which will destroy the lives of tenants.

We insist that housing associations support the traditional values of social housing and oppose the government’s attempts to destroy them.

Sham Lal is a member of campaign group Peabody Family Voice"

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HelenaDove · 10/02/2018 02:49

"Charles Smith 2d ago

3
4
Here are examples of unfit management, over a period of 10 years at just one Family Mosaic flat, remember this is one flat. The reason for this neglect being of course to pay Brendan Sarsfield's extortionate wage. As far as I know he can't actually be sacked. Brendan Sarsfield has been overseeing this shameful performance and really he should do the decent thing resign and let someone else take over who has some talent for the job.

12 months to repair a leaking drain sewage waste seeping into the basement.
7 consecutive no shows to repair a faulty boiler, action only effective after a direct intervention by tenant at head office.
Scaffolding left for 3 months to do roof repairs amounting to 3 days work, no inspection, no assessment, no specification.
Painters painting a house not having been paid for 3 months by unscrupulous private painting firm.
Tradesmen carpenter being forced to work 10 straight hours without a break (this is actually illegal and unsafe)
Roofer forced to work alone on exposed roof at height, unsafe working conditions.
Family Mosaic refusing to pay for essential repairs such as a re-wire of entire flat (paid for by the tenant)
Three separate private companies insisting on scaffolding this house three times for small repair jobs.
Six months to repair a waste pipe from a bath.
No contact information or direct management of work, no assessment of repairs, no inspection of finished work.
Secretaries hanging up on tenants trying to get work attended to.
Mosaic totally abandoning cyclical repairs.
Mosaic losing stock condition information from Savills after abandoning stock condition survey.
2 years to repair collapsed ceiling.
Call centre staff executing a policy of refusing to give contact information and refusing to give reasons for doing so. This is a management directive."

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HelenaDove · 18/02/2018 23:58

"A family have been sharing a bedroom since November after the heating broke at the housing association property.

Jemma Butcher, and sons Riley, five, and Teddy, three, are spending every night huddled up in the same room at Evans Court, Halstead in an effort to keep warm.

She said: “It started when my neighbour’s boiler started leaking into mine - she hasn’t had hot water since then either.

“I have been reporting it every week since it happened. Every time they say ‘we will get someone to call you back’ and they never do.”

Miss Butcher says she was given two electric heaters by Home Group and engineers have visited but they have gone almost the entire winter and the problem has not been solved.

She said: “Someone came out to assess it a while ago but said they weren’t really sure what was causing it.

“The heaters we have been given are too costly to run. I’m spending £150 a month.

“I’m a single parent working part time with two young boys and paying for all that for electricity is not easy.

“We have been sleeping in the same room just to keep warm. It’s been so cold the last few months.”

A spokesman for Home Group said: “We are aware of the situation regarding the customer who has been without heating since November and are working to resolve this as quickly as we can.

“The nature of the work that needs to be carried out is not straightforward due to the type of heating system in the property, so it has taken much longer to fix than we would have liked and this is why we arranged for alternative heating devices to be provided.

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our priority and in this case we can confirm any additional costs of using the electric heaters will be met by Home Group in line with our compensation policy.

“We are in the process of contacting the customer to confirm this and to apologise for any inconvenience caused."

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HelenaDove · 19/02/2018 00:04

From their fb Different tenant.

" Hope there is a commitment to communication , there was none for me last year , when you stripped out my boiler and immersion heater , and replaced it with a combi boiler I did not want , and there was not enough water pressure for"

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HelenaDove · 20/02/2018 17:06

"So after over a 2 and a half month wait and endless phone calls with sanctuary this is the dirty work off liberty and how much off a cowboy company they are, firstly our boiler decided to buckle under too much pressure just before Christmas and left our kitchen fully flooded. After waiting for over a month with no hot water or heating with our 2 year old daughter we was still waiting on a plastic part apparently to be ordered which could have took up to 10 working days... I could have picked this part up myself from B&Q. Once they actually got there lazy bums in gear after numerous phone calls and also getting the local MP involved they finally turned up to fit the part to fix the boiler, to only be told that the fella has had the part on his work van from day 1!! To also then be told that there was more serious problems with our boiler and the piping would need to be changed... after more numerous phone calls to find what the hell was going on we was told that they would need to take some off the partition wall out to replace the pipes behind it, we was happy for them to go ahead with this as we wanted our daughter to have a warm home again! nearly another 3 weeks later someone has decided to show up today to only do the most cowboy job ever
Putting 2 copper pipes right down our living room wall and not at all behind any wall as was the discussed plan. These pipes are right in arms reach off our 2 year old girl which are getting hotter by the minute, we was told that the pipers will not get any hotter than the radiators... BULLS#*T as I’ve just burnt myself on them. I also asked if there was any way that they could box this in or put any rap around it and I was told... “you will need to do that on your own behalf” we now Also have 2 gaping holes in the ceiling where he hasn’t correctly capped the holes and also left us with a gas safety warning certificate with no explanation to why. He was rude, arrogant. No respect to people’s belongings as he couldn’t even be bothered to put a shelf back up on the wall, which he took off in the first place. This is an absolute out rage and we have currently needed to move our furniture in the front room just too keep our 2 year old daughter safe from burning herself. Sort your act out!!! We have been in contact with higher up authorities about this and now apparently liberty gas have done there part and where no longer there problem! Don’t worry this has been taken further"

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