Tenants Talk - Taunton Deane Borough Council

New Heating contractorstarts 2nd April at 10.00Following a tender and detailed assessmentprocess, we are pleased to announce theappointment of a new heating contractor.A new heating servicing maintenancecontractor ALHCO will start work at 10.00 amon 2nd April.ALHCO will replace MJT Mechanical Services,who have served the Borough for many years.Tenants will start seeing ALHCO vans aroundthe Borough from April 2nd..ALHCO will complete all annual servicing andrepairs of heating and hot water systems inCouncil Houses and flats in the Borough – seebelow for more details.More information about the new service willbe issued to tenants in future newsletters andon notice boards in the Deane House.Any questions…..please contact AmandaOaten on 01823 356523ALHCOGlenfrome HouseEastgate RdBRISTOLBS5 6XXDDI: 0117 9527900Scope of works• Servicing gas appliances – annually• Servicing solid fuel appliances – annually• Servicing Oil fired heating systems -annually• Smoke detector checks• Storage heater checks• Radiator valve checks• Call out for heating and hot waterbreakdowns• Repairs to heating and hot water systemsHomefinder SomersetEnhancementsHomefinder Somerset is the choice based lettingssystem in use in Somerset. It is a web based systemthat is open to all people who have an active housingapplication in the area. The system is regularlyupgraded to improve its usefulness to users.Mutual ExchangesOne of the ways which applicants can choose tomove home is by mutual exchange, this is wheretenants can move from their current home toanother by contacting another tenant who is also onthe mutual exchange register. This can be one of thebest ways to move because you can choose theproperty you want to move to and the exchange isonly conducted between the parties involved so longas they meet the eligibility criteria to exchange.The Homefinder Somerset system has recently been upgradedto allow connection to the new National Home Swap system.If you are an existing mutual exchange applicant you will beable to use this new facility by logging onto the system andopting in. If you are not yet a mutual exchange applicant butwish to become one you will be asked about opting in whenyou complete your application.By opting in you will be able to access not just the exchangesavailable on Homefinder Somerset but also those on theLocata systems across the country. There is no cost to youfor using the system you just have to opt in.This additional functionality should allow greater mobilityto applicants particularly across the south west.Garage LettingsA further enhancement to the homefinder site is the inclusionof our garage re-let activity onto the site. This enhancementto the system means that our garage applicants can moreeasily now bid on available garages that we are letting, thesystem is much simpler and more transparent than how weoperated in the past. All of our current applicants are beingsent a letter informing them that they will need to register onthe site in order to bid. Posters will be in our communityoffices to publicise the improvement.www.homefindersomerset.co.uk14