Housing association saying I’m unreasonable I don’t think I am !!!

[HAunreasonable]

The HA need to do planned repair/upgrade work. The appt slots are 830-1230 or 130-530.
I asked them to book mine around school runs but twice they’ve turned up when I’m out ? Now saying that if they are ‘refused entry’ a third time it will lead to further action???

Surely they have to be fair about this and come at a time that works for everyone

Oh for gods sake not rocket science

just say both kids a little under the weather, don’t say temperature or sickness and have them go back the next day.

problem solved - really not hard

This. We run a firm that works for a couple of HAs, it is nigh on impossible to specify times for exactly this reason.

As a one off, if be arranging for someone else to do the school run.

If it is an external service provider, the HA are probably charged an abortive visit fee each time the firm turns up and cannot carry out the work, so the HA will be keen to minimise this.

You are being unreasonable. You are rejecting suggestions made on here as to how to solve this. It's for you to solve and you will need to do so, just like you need to solve all life's other problems, which could be a lot worse than this one. Do you suffer with anxiety? Because the way you are rejecting every possibility suggests that you may be struggling to be flexible and find a creative solution to the problem. Perhaps you need to rigidly stick to the same routine all the time to create a feeling of safety? I am obviously just speculating but it is striking how difficult you are finding it to solve this problem that is annoying but not that difficult.

I work for a HA and we have a school run time slot which is from 9.30 to 2.30 appointments,so parents can book that. Surprised your HA don't do the same.

It works the same way even if you own your own house. The folks doing the work don’t know when they’ll be at your property unless you’re their first job of the day. Their insurance / company policy won’t let them work alone in your home in case you accuse them of theft / damage. I work full time and have a young child at school so I understand how unfair it feels but it’s just the way it is.

If they are reliable and you know they will turn up on the specified day, call the kids in sick and let them stay home. At least you will get it over and done with.

Missed your comment. I have said exactly the same thing below. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. This is so easily fixed.

She clearly doesnt want them home for an extra day because thats a straight forward solution.
Id take an afternoon slot and pick them up early for "the dentist", its honestly not as hard as being made out!

I've lived in Council social housing, and I believe the "someone there to let them in" is because only a person over 18 can let them in/sign if needed. I've never had a problem leaving them in the house though to do school pick up. Could you ask your HA to ask the contractor to call when they're on their way? Most contractors are reasonable and understanding, and they'd rather speak to the tenant to hear they are only a few mins away, rather than turn up and no-one there.
Saying that though, my mum, and my stepson and family both live in HA, and my mum has had to take whole days off work before! HA can be a nightmare tbh!

Or if you know what company the contractor is from, maybe speak to them directly to explain

Do you have a Housing Officer (HO)? It sounds like your HA are undertaking planned maintenance works.
If this is the case you should have a Resident Liaison Officer (RLO), who is directly employed by the contractor undertaking the works. The RLO is essentially your 1st point of contact in respect of the works and in terms of them meeting their customer obligations they have to work with you to find a suitable appointment time. Have you discussed this with them?
You should have received a leaflet with their contact details pre the works commencing.

Where they cannot provide you with a specific slot they should be able to advise you on how many hours they estimate they may need on a given day, allowing you to advise on a late morning/ early afternoon appointment.

Your HA is obligated to ensure the contractors provide you with the necessary provisions to meet the necessary appointments, more so as your child/ren have additional needs and the Housing white paper advises all housing providers, must level the playing field so to speak for all customers, mandating that they work with you to ensure you receive the same services/ considerations as others. (Provided your HA are aware of your specific needs, they are in breach).

You should email the RLO, and include your HO, your ward MP and Cllr and ensure you include your HA's main customer service email address.

List your previous requests on the same and whether you received a response as well as what the response was.
Ask them to work with you to complete the necessary works and ensure you remain professional throughout your email.

I hope this helps.

It may not be down to the HA, it may be the contractor.

My council's contract with the contractor for most work is that they will offer morning or afternoon appointments. If they specified a different range of times in the tender, the contract price would go up.

I was an HA housing officer for 7 years. The HA was a specialist provider for tenants who were vulnerable because of MH issues or LDs. Because of the vulnerability of the tenants, they decided to offer more specific 3-hour time slots, and it meant that the contract cost more than it would have done.

Even with specific time slots, there were still cases where we had to get a court order to enforce entry, because tenants either weren't there or wouldn't let contractors in.

Having said that, if you know who the contractor is OP, you could give them a call and see if they'd be willing to specify a time after 9.30 or whatever. They might well prefer that to having a wasted journey.

My husband works with HA’s and he said quote ‘they will absolutely do nothing about it’ they can’t take you to court when they are being unreasonable and not making adjustments to your personal commitments. I would explain that you are unable to be at home between XYZ and let them give you an alternate slot. You aren’t able too ‘book off work’ when it’s childcare, they quite rightly come first. Plus you’ll be getting fines from school if you don’t take them! You can’t win.

I wish they did! I’m hoping they get back to me next week and can arrange for the half term 🤞

Standard for this sort of thing.

Either you book the children into before school or after school club that day, or you just keep them off.

Well we all have to deal with this sort of thing. It isn’t exclusive to social housing tenants. Keep your DC off school as a PP suggested. Not really worth all this drama.

Pay for breakfast club/ pay a child minder to take them in?

You are in the hugely privileged position of getting housing work done for free.

Just pay for the kids to be dealt with!

Riddle me this SH haters
Last night my niece and i were discussing a falls pendant and a key safe with my elderly DM
As i was just getting off the sleep last night i had a wait a minute moment.
We are not allowed to have anything on our door or the walls of the communal hallway outside our flat
So what if someone who is a falls risk needs a key safe installed outside their door??!!!!

How to prove you haven't read the thread. If her repairs are done for free, where does the money she pays in rent go?

You say they're not being flexible but neither are you - how do you think other people manage?

I'm a district nurse and many people have key safes - these are usually allowed. It's just ornamental stuff that you're not meant to have

But if it was affecting you you'd probably find a way to accommodate,right?

By making arrangements at an appropriate time?

I'm shocked everyone thinks it's OK to keep a child off school for this? I've had all my gas pipes replaced due to a leak they came at 9am for three days and took his lunch break late while I did the afternoon school run to accommodate access needs

Key safes are 100% allowed! They're installed for carers access usually when there isn't one already there. Pretty standard for most properties to have a key safe outside as the voids team use them when the property is empty.

As I’ve explained we aren’t currently able to use wraparound care due to needing 1-1 support which isn’t in place yet. All the local
childminders are full they don’t just have spaces for odd days they have set children set days and ratios to adhere to.

Im going to push for a date in half term. If not I’m going to request the HA introduce a ‘school hours’ time slot like others have mentioned as I think they should offer this.