Dealing with housing associations

[tizzyness]

Can anyone offer any advice? I live next door to a housing association property (they own the freehold). Our properties are not adjoined, but our side paths run alongside each other. For a while their drain has been leaking/overflowing (not sure which) and it overflows on to my path. The result is a constant wet area, that becomes slippery due to the non-clean nature of the water (it isn’t, fortunately, sewerage), becomes covered in moss and is a haven for those mosquito-type things.

I called the housing assoc nearly 4 weeks ago and was promised a call back. Nothing happened. I called again on Monday, they say they had no record of my original complaint. They then said they would send somebody round yesterday morning. My neighbour called me to say they hadn’t shown up. I called the housing assoc this morning, and told them they hadn’t come. They said they had, and that they wouldn’t have needed to disturb the neighbour to see the problem. I told them they would absolutely would have had to in order to gain access through a LOCKED gate. And now they’re saying well I’m just going to have to wait until they get a budget and they have no idea how long that will take.

At the absolute most I’m willing to give them 10 days. Do you know if there are any other avenues I can explore? Has anyone had the same/similar issues with housing association in the past? Getting through to anyone at the housing assoc that has any interest in the issue is impossible, so following them up is solely a head hitting brick wall exercise. I gave them the reference number they gave me and they say they don’t know what that refers to! Is it possible to get the council involved, or are they not interested if it’s private property and not say on a public walkway? I’m at a loss – as soon as the first frost comes (ok, so I’m being very pessimistic now) someone is going to get seriously hurt if they slip on that stuff.

Thanks
An exasperated Tizzy

[Tim Lund]

Yes - we had a simialr experience at our allotments, with our neighbours, a block of sheltered housing owned by L&Q. It took well over a year for them to admit that the reason part of our site kept flooding was damaged pipework on their property. The best advice is just to be clear on the facts, peristent, and polite.

[Dorian]

Im no expert but you could start with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) which was previously the Housing Corporation,( previous Labour government decided to spend millions re branding it as an excercise in errr re-branding !) who oversee and fund Housing Associations.

http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/complaints

Which HA is it ?

[tizzyness]

Actually, it's L&Q - same that Tim has experience of.

That HCA looks very useful, thanks. I'm going to spend some time exploring that.

I think you're right Tim - sticking to the facts and keeping a record of all correspondance is key (I've learnt that over the years!) Unfortunately there seems no option to email, which would provide a useful paper trail. Maybe I shall have to resort to ACTUAL letters - perish the thought!

And politeness is also important - but when the person on the other end of the phone is rude and unhelpful, sometimes it's just so hard!

[stuart]

Perhaps no help but an understanding of the way some the HAs work.

I deal with Phoenix which took over much stock and a fair number of employees from Lewisham. With some exceptions I have mostly found these employees friendly but rarely effective. I believe it is a structural problem.

First that anything of this sort is handed to their out sourced maintenence organisation. This organisation has to appear effective in the HA's eyes so everything reported back is a success or non-success wasn't down to them. In many cases they hand out work to sub contractors. They, hopefully, sort the original problem.

But that has been transcribed from you to the HA and from the HA to the Contractor and from the Contractor to the sub Contractor. The latter sections by handwritten note or crackly phone call. The man on the spot has no access to the original request. In true "Prepare to advance ..." to "Going to dance ..." form the sub contractor can end up in the wrong place to do the wrong job with the wrong contact number.

This goes back up the line each level making sure the blame doesn't lie with them. And so on. I don't have a solution except to keep trying and make sure your request is explicitly clear and has been read back to you.

Stuart

[Weeble]

Unfortunately you're a comparatively small problem in a large organisation, so it may simply be a case of persistance and perseverence and (politely) making a fuss until the issue gets prioritised.

I doubt you'll get far with the HCA. The Housing Ombudsman service handles complaints against housing associations, but I don't know if that's only complaints raised by residents themselves rather than neighbours. Even if neighbours can go to the Ombudsman, you can't do that until you've exhausted normal complaints procedures with the housing association themselves, and I think you're a long way from that yet.

One suggestion - does this problem affect the housing association walkways as well as your own? Do you know anyone who lives there or could you approach them. You might get further faster if the issue is being raised by one of their own residents.

[biscuitman1978]

...you could start with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) which was previously the Housing Corporation,( previous Labour government decided to spend millions re branding it as an excercise in errr re-branding !)...

I'm certainly not here to defend the last Government (or any other), but for the sake of accuracy it's worth noting that the HCA was not a simple rebranding of the Housing Corp. It was formed by a merger of the Housing Corp, English Partnerships and a range of other bodies.

Whether the 'rebranding' cost millions I don't know. No doubt Dorian can enlighten us with her sources.

[tizzyness]

Thanks for the advice, the general info is actually really useful to know as well. I guess there are bigger issues for them to worry about.

Unfortunately the tenants are not interested - they don't use the path at all and so it doesn't bother them. Even if they did, from what I know of them, I don't suspect they'd be very, shall we say, "proactive".

Oh well, I shall persist with the HA. If nothing seems to be moving, I'll look into the complaints procedure and see where we go from there. Here's hoping.
Tizz

[KM]

I had to deal with L&Q about huge trees that needed pruning near my house and I also second being persistent and polite.
In the end I dealt with Customer Services (or whatever they are called) and they were good - well this woman was;

Lynne Humm
Customer Relations Manager
L&Q Direct
Tel: 0844 406 9000 - Ext 6039
Fax: 0870 731 9147
Email: lhumm@lqgroup.org.uk

However I was on their case for a long time (I had time, I was on maternity leave!!)

[Tim Lund]

To say thank you again to the man who eventually sorted it out, his name was Del Olusanya,
Neighbourhood Services Team Leader.

[Paul_at_L_and_Q]

Hello Tizzyness,

If you'd like to send me a private message with your address, then I will pass your details to our Customer Relations Team to help get this issue resolved for you.

Alternatively, you can visit our website at www.lqgroup.org.uk and visit the 'comments and complaints' page (there is a link in the 'residents toolbox') where there are a few options for contacting the Customer Relations Team.

I hope that helps.

Paul Hornsby, Web Editor. L&Q

[tizzyness]

Thanks Paul.

It's been going on for nearly 2 months now, but I've now had some what I hope is going to be some useful help from Customer Relations.

Apparently someone came round to try to fix the issue last week, but didn't let us know in advance (we'd been waiting 4 weeks since their last visit) so we hadn't made provision to allow access. Seems a complete waste of everybody's time if you ask me. No wonder so much money etc goes to waste.

Oh well, thanks again for your suggestion - I won't hold my breath, but at least I don't feel like I'm smacking my head against a brick wall anymore (yet!).

Tizz

[tizzyness]

Just to say thanks to Paul for your advice. The issue eventually got sorted after I phoned customer relations who could at least track and update me on the situation. It was sorted within 4 days of me speaking to them.

Same advice goes to anyone else - if you have an issue with a housing association, go straight to the complaints team, they at least seem to have some interest on what's going on.

Cheers

A happy Tizz