Service Standards

As your landlord, we must provide a safe, well-maintained home and deliver services that meet legal and regulatory standards. If you feel we are not meeting any of the standards below, please contact us so we can investigate and put things right. 

A decent home
You have the right to live in a home that meets the Government’s Decent Homes Standard. Your home should be safe, in a good state of repair, and provide a reasonable standard of comfort. 

Health and safety
We must comply with health and safety laws and manage risks that could affect you, your home, or shared areas of your building. 

Your tenancy rights
Your tenancy agreement explains your rights and responsibilities, as well as ours. It is an important document that sets out what you can expect from us as your landlord.  Housing law can be complicated so please feel free to contact us if you need advice. 

A home fit to live in
You have the right to a home that is safe, healthy and fit for human habitation. If there are serious problems that affect your ability to live safely in your home, we will work to address them. 

Notice of visits
We will normally give you reasonable notice before visiting your home to carry out repairs, maintenance, inspections or safety checks, unless there is an emergency. 

Reasonable adjustments
Disabled customers have the right to request reasonable adjustments to help them access our services or live independently in their home. This may include changes to how we communicate with you or adaptations to your home where appropriate.  

If something isn’t right
If you believe we are not meeting any of these standards, please contact us as soon as possible. We will listen, investigate your concerns and work with you to resolve any issues. If you remain unhappy with our response, you can use our complaints process for an independent review of your concerns. 

We aim to provide excellent services and we have developed a range of service standards so that residents are aware of the level of service they can expect to receive.

We are available between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday, to respond to your query, details of how you can contact us are on our contact page. 

We are closed on weekends and bank holidays. During this time we provide an out of hours emergency service which is accessed by calling our usual number: 0345 60 100 30. 

We encourage you to download our app, if you are able, where you will be able to view your account and report repairs. 

When you contact us, we aim to respond to your enquiry at first point of contact, or we will pass it on to the relevant member of staff where appropriate.  

In all cases we will aim to respond to your enquiry quickly and efficiently by: 

• Providing a response to all letters within 10 working days of receiving them.
• Providing a response to all emails within 5 working days of receiving them.
• We aim to respond to all callback requests within 2 working days.

To keep you informed about housing issues, services, and our performance, we will issue:

• E-Newsletters (quarterly).
• An annual report.

If you are dissatisfied with the service that we provide, then please let us know.  You are entitled to make a complaint and we want to make it easy for you to tell us if you feel something isn’t right. We will:

• Follow the Housing Ombudsman’s complaint handling code, including timescales, in handling all formal complaints. 
• When you tell us you are dissatisfied, we will try to resolve your concerns at the first point of contact and propose an action plan to your satisfaction.
• If you remain dissatisfied with the our response/action then we will offer for the matter to be dealt with by our Customer Resolutions Team as a formal complaint. Our procedure is explained here.
• We will contact you about your formal complaint and provide a written acknowledge within 5 working days. 
• We will explain our process to you in correspondence and provide details of how to access the Housing Ombudsman Service. 
• We aim to provide a full written response to your complaint within 10 working days of the formal acknowledgment letter. 
• If you remain dissatisfied with our response to your complaint, you are able to escalate your complaint to stage 2.  Stage 2 complaints will be acknowledged within 5 working days, and a formal response given within 20 working days. 
• If your complaint cannot be resolved within the timescales above, we will explain the reasons why and agree a new deadline with you. 

To ensure that you understand your rights and responsibilities and meet the conditions of tenancy we shall:

• Provide you with a Tenancy Agreement in a format that is accessible to you. 
• Respond to all requests to mutually exchange within 5 days. 
• Upon receiving a completed application form, make a decision on all mutual exchange requests within 42 days from receipt of a completed application form. 
• Provide access to a mediation service to help resolve neighbour complaints and antisocial behaviour incidents. 
• Work with other agencies to help resolve neighbour complaints and antisocial behaviour incidents. 
• Provide a written response to requests to assign a tenancy or those requesting a succession to a tenancy within 10 days. 
• Ensure that all homes let have a gas safety certificate (where there is a gas supply) and an energy performance certificate available for the new tenant at the sign-up stage. 

To ensure that we undertake a repairs and maintenance as efficiently and effectively as possible we shall:

• Provide you with a ‘new tenant sign-up pack’, containing information about your home and tenancy, including your and our repairing responsibilities, and make these available on our website here.
• Attend to any emergency repairs within 6 hours to make safe.
• Aim to complete non-urgent repairs within 28 days. 
• Offer morning or afternoon slot for routine repair appointments.
• Give you 24 hours’ notice of a need to access your home to inspect the property or carry out repairs. 
• Ensure all our staff and contractors carry identification. 
• Deal with all requests for residents wishing to undertake improvements to their homes within 10 working days. 
• Give you the opportunity to make an appointment to allow access to undertake the repairs requested. 
• Inform you if any repairs requested are rechargeable to you before undertaking the work.  
• Pay compensation for repairs not undertaken within the specified timescale (subject to certain conditions being met). 
• Undertake regular fire risk assessments of internal communal areas and explain to you how to stay safe from fire on an annual basis.
• Provide an annual gas safety check to your home, where applicable. 
• Inform, consult and involve you if we undertake major improvements to your home. 

You can expect us to:

• Provide detailed information to you regarding rent changes annually and give you at least one month’s notice of any intended change. 
• Make available to you a rent statement showing all payments and charges. 
• Write to you to inform you of any rent monies owed to us. 
• Provide support and advice to you on what to do if you get into difficulties with your rent. 

To help maintain estates and communal areas we will:

• Ensure all designated communal grassed areas, shrub and flower beds are maintained. 
• Ensure trees hedges and bushes are trimmed. 
• Ensure all communal areas are kept clean and tidy. 
• Organise the clearance of bulk refuse, and monitor rubbish and recycling collections by external authorities. 
• Undertake cleaning of communal areas on a fortnightly/monthly/quarterly basis depending on where you live and the exposure of windows to the elements. 
• Undertake the cleaning of communal windows on a monthly/bi-monthly depending on where you live. 

You have the right to be involved in decisions about your home. You can expect us to:

• Give you the chance to tell us what you think about our services by survey.
• Consult you on changes or issues that affect the management of your home. 
• Ensure that a representative of Orwell attends Resident Association meetings when they are requested to do so. 
• Undertake satisfaction surveys on services that we provide to you. 
• Ensure all tenants can have their voice heard by providing a range of different channels and methods to communicate with us. 

Where appropriate we shall provide extra support and advice to meet the needs of more vulnerable tenants by:

• Providing extra advice and support to help promote independence for you to manage your home through your support provider. 
• Provide information in a plain language and in alternative formats where required.