foster carer prog - Council meetings - Lewisham Council

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Executive summary Our review found that the services currently provided to leaseholders in Lewisham needed to improve in a number of ways. The information provided to leaseholders needed to be clearer and more timely; costs needed to be calculated more accurately and reduced where possible; the quality of works needed to be improved and made more consistent; and the Council needed to monitor its housing providers in a more robust fashion. Information provision We found that leaseholders were often given inadequate notice of (a) walkabouts on their estate and (b) work being carried out to their property. We are therefore recommending a series of targets that housing managers should meet in order to encourage the timely provision of information to leaseholders. In addition, we found that more attention needed to be given to ensuring that leaseholders always received a meaningful response to their enquiries within ten working days of making their enquiry. It was also evident that there needed to be a clear strategy for raising awareness of the complaints procedure operated by Lewisham Homes and Regenter B3 and for providing feedback on how complaints information was being used to improve services. As part of our review we considered the methods used by Lewisham Homes and Regenter B3 to ascertain the views of leaseholders. Both organisations send out annual surveys and we think that it would be helpful if there was some crossover in the questions asked to allow benchmarking to take place. We also think that consideration should be given to improving consultation methods, as the cost of making the surveying process more in-depth will be more than outweighed by the benefits of picking up the worst performance. Finally, we feel that more should be done to advise potential leaseholders of the implications of buying a leasehold property before they purchase. Costs The Council is currently considering options for allowing leaseholders longer repayment periods for bills. We think that, as part of this work, service charge instalment arrangements should be reviewed; the time allowed for major works bills to be paid should be extended; leaseholders should be encouraged to start making provision for major works as soon as they receive the initial notice; and on-account billing 2 The Council’s obligations to leaseholders
Executive summary for each leasehold property should be investigated. We found that there was a strong feeling amongst a number of leaseholders that bills were sometimes inaccurate. In view of this, we think that the way in which information on costs is communicated to leaseholders should be changed and that a clear and complete breakdown of costs (what work took place, when and how much it cost) should be provided with every service charge or major works bill, so that leaseholders can more fully understand what they are being asked to pay for. If feasible, we think that service charge and major works files, including redacted invoices, should be made available on the Lewisham Homes/Regenter B3 website. We think that major works management fees are too high and that they should be benchmarked and reduced where possible. We also feel strongly that Regenter B3 should introduce a transparent and equitable flat rate charging policy for service charge management fees. Monitoring We believe that the Council’s clienting procedures in relation to the services provided by Lewisham Homes and Regenter B3 to leaseholders should be reviewed. Current procedures need to be reassessed to ensure that they are sufficient to ensure value for money for leaseholders. In particular, we feel that the Council should strengthen monitoring in relation to how Lewisham Homes and Regenter B3 check (a) the quality of repairs, maintenance and major works; and (b) the accuracy of bills. We also think that the performance management framework should include scope for requiring Lewisham Homes and Regenter B3 to make a reduction to the annual service charge bill if performance falls below a certain level. Quality We note that a large number of housing providers operate a five year external repairs and decoration cycle, yet Lewisham Homes operate an eight year cycle. We would like consideration to be given to whether a five year cycle would be more appropriate. We have also concluded that there is no reason why the Council should not investigate the possibility of encouraging, where feasible, the transfer of the freehold to leaseholders. The Council’s obligations to leaseholders 3
Page 1 and 2: The Council’s obligations to leas
Page 3: Chair’s introduction Cllr Alex Fe
Page 7 and 8: Key lines of enquiry • When will
Page 9 and 10: Methodology The results of the surv
Page 11 and 12: Questionnaire and focus groups 6. T
Page 13 and 14: Questionnaire and focus groups •
Page 21 and 22: Findings A: Background 19. There ar
Page 23 and 24: Findings B: The Standard of Repairs
Page 25 and 26: Findings 32. We asked if compensati
Page 27 and 28: Findings section 20 notice covering
Page 29 and 30: Findings Key lines of enquiry 42. W
Page 31 and 32: Findings 46. Regenter accepted that
Page 33 and 34: Findings 50. How many Lewisham leas
Page 35 and 36: Findings 54. What is the process fo
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Page 39 and 40: Findings 62. What is the value of o
Page 41 and 42: Findings • during a falling marke
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Page 45 and 46: Findings 83. How do Lewisham Homes
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Page 49 and 50: e answered within 10 working days a
Page 51 and 52: Findings noted that the external fa
Page 53 and 54: Recommendations Our recommendations
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Recommendations allow a clear and c
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Recommendations Recommendation Prio
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Recommendations Recommendation Prio
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Glossary ALMO EXOR KLOE L&Q LVT Reg
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key legislation relating to the man
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Appendices Appendix B: Results of t
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Appendices answered question 93 ski
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Appendices Appendix C: The Committe
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Appendices Ruddock requested this.
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Appendices block my window. The ini
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Appendices in the bill being carrie
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Appendices previous officers are ov
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Appendices unreliably overcharged.
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Appendices area much better managed
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Appendices Appendix D: Results of t
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Some of the leaseholders had been t
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Appendices become damp and start cr
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Appendices “We were told to get a
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Appendices that there was a mistake
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Appendices Appendix E: Regenter B3
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Appendices Appendix F: Lewisham Hom
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Appendices Leaseholders were asked
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Appendices The leaseholders who had
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