Tenants’ Handbook
www.southwark.gov.uk
Tenants’ Handbook
Contents
Access to services Your tenancy Rent and other charges Grounds for possession
5 18 39 50
Looking after your home and estate Health and safety Respecting others Getting involved Parking Housing choice Conditions of tenancy
59 84 97 115 122 129 143
www.southwark.gov.uk
Welcome
Whether you’re a new tenant or you have been with us a long time we always want to hear from you about making things better. We listen carefully to your views and we consulted with tenant representatives to update this handbook. With the help of tenants we have renewed your Tenants’ Handbook to keep you up to date on how to get things done and how to get the best service we can offer. Updating this handbook helps us to give you the right information so that you can get the most from the place you call home. The handbook also has information about how we can help you manage your home and gives you more opportunities to be involved in your local community. I hope that you find the handbook very useful. Please keep it and use it to find information about looking after your home, getting our help when you need it, and becoming more involved with your local community in future.
Councillor Ian Wingfield Cabinet Member for Housing and Deputy Leader of the Council
If you are the tenant of a Tenant Management Organisation (TMO), your TMO may provide some of the services explained in this handbook. When this applies, you should follow their procedures. Your TMO will tell you which services they provide.
Tenants’ Handbook
5
Access to services
This chapter tells you how to contact us, where our offices are, how we collect your feedback and manage your information, and what to do if there is a problem, including details about Southwark’s own arbitration service.
www.southwark.gov.uk
Contents 5
Page 1 Introduction 6 2 Contact us online 6 3 Contact us by telephone, post or in person 7-9 4 Getting your views 10 5 Equality and diversity 10 6 Information about you 11 7 Customer care 11 8 Compliments, comments and complaints 12 - 13 9 Arbitration 14 - 15 10 Access to information 16 - 17
6
1 Introduction This chapter tells you about how to contact us (including online), getting your views, our customer service, how we manage complaints, our arbitration service, and how we manage information.
2 Contact us online You can contact us via our website at www.southwark.gov.uk Using the website gives you instant access to the council allowing you to make payments for council services such as rent, council tax, parking and so on, using secure online services. You can also report issues or apply for services online. In fact, most information is available on the website. As well as information, most standard forms can be found on the website and all tenants can now pay their rent through the website. Many customers have also signed up for a personalised MySouthwark online account, which gives access to lots of information and services. You can get your own account by going to www.southwark.gov.uk/mysouthwark. You can also connect via social media with Twitter and Facebook. Many tenants have access to the internet and email in their homes and there are internet cafes and easy to use computers in most of Southwark’s libraries. You can also get online access to council services at MySouthwark Service Points, where staff will help you. We recognise that people want to have easy ways to get information and communicate with us and we are making it as easy as possible for tenants to get information and use services. Let us know if you have further online requirements.
Tenants’ Handbook
7
3 Contact us by telephone, post or in person By telephone The number for housing enquiries is 020 7525 2600, available from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The number for repairs enquiries is 0800 952 4444, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When you contact us we will: • Be polite • Identify ourselves so you know who you are talking to. We aim to answer 80 per cent of calls within 60 seconds and will do our best to deal with your enquiry at the first contact. By post You can write to us at: Southwark Council Housing and Community Services PO Box 64529 London SE1P 5LX In person MySouthwark Service Points, open between 9am and 5pm on weekdays, are a drop in service for anyone visiting, living or working in Southwark. Staff can deal with general enquiries about housing and council services, as well as council tax and housing benefit. We provide advice and information, try to help you resolve any problems you may have and put you in touch with the right service if you need additional help. MySouthwark Service Points provide: • • • •
A free phone line to all council services A wide range of leaflets, forms and information Free access to the council’s website via public access computers Immediate telephone interpreting.
www.southwark.gov.uk
8
MySouthwark Service Points can offer you appointments for specific enquiries, or you can drop in for self service access to: • Information about a wide range of council services • Your MySouthwark account • Pay for a service • Find out about choice based lettings. To make an appointment to speak to a customer service advisor in person you can telephone 020 7525 5565 or visit: Walworth MySouthwark Service Point 376 Walworth Road Walworth SE17 2NG Tel: 020 7525 5565 Bermondsey MySouthwark Service Point 11 Market Place The Blue Bermondsey SE16 3UQ Tel: 020 7525 5565 Peckham MySouthwark Service Point 122 Peckham Hill Street Peckham SE15 5JR Tel: 020 7525 5565 Housing Services Offices Abbeyfield Road Housing Services Office is your first point of personal contact for housing related queries if you live north of the borough: 153 -159 Abbeyfield Road London SE16 2BS Tel: 020 7525 2600
Tenants’ Handbook
9
Harris Street Housing Services Office is your first point of personal contact for housing related queries if you live in Camberwell or Dulwich: Harris Street London SE5 7RX Tel: 020 7525 2600 Kingswood Housing Services Office is your first point of contact for housing related queries if you live in Dulwich: 39 Seeley Drive Dulwich SE21 8QR Tel: 020 7525 2600 Useful council contacts: General enquiries Repairs Gas problems/safety Tenancy fraud investigations team Complaints Housing Options Rubbish collection Estate/street cleaning Parking services Estate parking Rent enquiries Council tax and benefits Emergency housing (out of hours service) Noise and antisocial behaviour service
020 7525 2600 0800 952 4444 0800 952 4444 020 7525 4686 020 7525 0042 020 7525 5950 020 7525 2000 020 7525 2000 0800 138 9081 020 7525 3587 020 7525 2600 020 7525 1880 020 7525 5000 020 7525 5777
Other useful contacts: Gas emergency (National Grid) Electricity emergency (UK Power Networks) Thames Water Victim Support Southwark Southwark Advocacy and Support Service (SASS)
0800 111 999 0800 028 0247 0800 714 614 0845 303 0900 020 7593 1290
www.southwark.gov.uk
10
4 Getting your views We strive to provide a fair and efficient service and we welcome customer feedback that will help us to improve services. We also carry out surveys from time to time to find out how well you think we are doing. We may carry out these surveys by talking to you on the phone or by emailing or posting you a questionnaire. Sometimes we will ask independent researchers to talk to you face to face. We use the information from these surveys to improve our services.
5 Equality and diversity Tenants in Southwark speak many different languages and have different backgrounds and needs. We believe that this diversity in our local population is one of our greatest strengths and we try to provide services that meet everyone’s needs. We are committed to making sure that no housing applicant, job applicant, tenant, contractor, tenant representative or employee receives less favourable treatment than another because of their religious or political beliefs, race or ethnic background, gender or gender reassignment, sex or sexual orientation, disability, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, or age. We act quickly and firmly against any form of discrimination, as required by law. We promote equality of opportunity and aim to provide services, policies and procedures that meet the needs of everyone in our community.
Tenants’ Handbook
11
6 Information about you From time to time we ask you to tell us about yourself after you have used one of our services. This is usually a short form that asks you about personal information (i.e. your age, sex, ethnic background, what languages you speak and, sometimes, whether you have a disability or any religious belief). This information helps us to understand our customers, find out who lives in our communities and plan services that better meet your needs. Your information is used solely by the council for the specific purposes outlined. We do not share the information with any other organisation and we protect your data under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998. We check our performance to make sure we are treating our customers fairly and do this through regular monitoring and reviews.
7 Customer care You can give us feedback via our website www.southwark.gov.uk We are committed to providing you with consistently high quality services. We aim to give you information on the level of service you can expect from us and we involve tenants in developing our standards. We measure what we do against set standards and targets using various methods, which include surveys and quality checks. We update you in a number of ways, including articles in our Southwark Life Housing News magazine. If you do not think we are meeting our standards please let us know. If you receive particularly good service we would also like to hear from you because we use your feedback to help improve services. You can tell us what you think by writing to us at: FREEPOST RSCE-TGHU-CUZB Southwark Council 160 Tooley Street London SE1 2QH
www.southwark.gov.uk
12
8 Compliments, comments and complaints You can contact us via email for compliments, complaints or comments at: complaints@southwark.gov.uk We are committed to providing high quality services to our customers, but we recognise that there may be times when things go wrong. If you are not getting the level of service that you expect we want you to tell us about it so that we can try to put it right. You can make a compliment, comment or complaint about the housing service in the following ways: • Email complaints@southwark.gov.uk • Telephone on 020 7525 0042 • In person • By letter. By letter Customer Resolution Team Southwark Council PO Box 64529 London SE1P 5LX In person You can make a complaint in person at any of our MySouthwark Service Points. We operate a two stage complaints process which gives the customer the right to have their complaint reviewed at a more senior level should they remain dissatisfied. We aim to acknowledge 100 per cent of complaints within three working days. When making your complaint please tell us as much as you can about your problem, including what went wrong, when it happened, who you dealt with, and how you would like the matter resolved. You can also find full details of how to complain on our website and from leaflets available from our customer contact points. If you have made a complaint and want to find out the next steps to take, please visit our website www.southwark.gov.uk
Tenants’ Handbook
13
The complaints process: a) Complaint stage – your initial complaint about the service you are unhappy with Your complaint will be acknowledged within three working days, fully investigated by the business unit and you will receive a response within 15 working days. We hope that you will be satisfied with our response to your complaint, but if you remain unhappy you can take the matter further. b) Review stage – complain direct to the Customer Resolution Team who will investigate independently If you are unhappy with the complaint response you received, you can contact the Customer Resolution Team with a summary of your dissatisfaction with the response you received. The team will investigate how your complaint was dealt with at the initial stage. Your complaint will be acknowledged within three working days and the team has up to 25 working days to respond to you. In some cases this may take longer and, if so, you will be informed if there are any delays in investigating your complaint. This is the final stage of the complaints procedure. Taking matters further If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your complaint upon completion of the stage two investigation, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman. The Housing Ombudsman considers complaints made about local authorities in their role as landlords. You will need to contact an MP or local councillor in order to progress your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman or wait eight weeks after you receive our response. This is a free, independent service that investigates complaints against councils. You can complain to the ombudsman at any time but they will only usually investigate if you have already been through our own complaints procedure.
www.southwark.gov.uk
14
9 Arbitration Information about all our arbitration services is available via www.southwark.gov.uk We maintain an arbitration tribunal and panel to resolve certain disputes between you and us. Both parties will be bound by the decision of the tribunal. If there is a dispute between you and us about something included in your tenancy agreement, either you or we can apply to the independent arbitration tribunal to help find a solution. Where a dispute is referred to arbitration, both parties will be bound to submit to the decision of the arbitration tribunal and decisions of the arbitration tribunal will be enforceable in the courts. Southwark Council will have the power to prescribe regulations for the conduct of proceedings of the arbitration tribunal after consultation with the Tenant Council and the Arbitration Team. An arbitration tribunal will consist of a councillor representative, a tenant representative and an independent representative drawn from the arbitration panel. The arbitration panel will consist of at least nine members, of whom at least three will be the councillor representatives, i.e. elected members of the council; at least three will be the tenants’ representatives i.e. tenants elected by neighbourhood forums; and at least three will be the independent representatives who are neither elected members, nor tenants of the council and will be jointly selected by one councillor representative, one tenant representative and the arbitration officer. The following may be referred to the arbitration tribunal (as long as any dispute does not date more than six years prior to application) concerning: • A ny alleged breach, by either us or you, of any of the conditions under the tenancy agreement, or otherwise imposed by law • Whether any agreement required from us under the tenancy agreement has been withheld, whether such agreement has been unreasonably withheld, or whether such agreement has been given subject to an unreasonable condition • Whether someone is entitled to succeed to the tenancy between the council and anyone claiming to be qualified to succeed a deceased tenant (in this case the procedure is the same as if the parties were the tenant and the council but for “the tenant” there is substituted “anyone claiming to be qualified to succeed the tenant”) • Whether you had reasonable excuse for failing to provide us with access to your home to carry out repairs or in the exercise of our proper and legitimate landlord functions
Tenants’ Handbook
15
• R ent (but not rent increases) • Allegations of antisocial or unreasonable behaviour, abuse, discrimination, intimidation, harassment or abuse of anyone related to any protected characteristic under the terms of the Equality Act 2010 • Disputes arising because of allegations of misuse of communal areas, door entry systems, CCTV or shared security • Disputes about use of any restricted areas • Any dispute related to a pet or an animal • Any dispute related to fire safety or health and safety in general • Any dispute related to waste, recycling and the tidiness of gardens • Any dispute concerning threats or use of violence and controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour. The arbitration tribunal has the power to: • Award damages • Grant a declaration • Order either party to do or refrain from doing anything in order to secure compliance with the obligations of the tenancy agreement or as otherwise imposed by law. If the arbitration tribunal finds that Southwark Council has been in breach of its repairing responsibilities it may award compensation to you in line with the tenancy agreement and, if the breach has not been corrected by us, may order that we carry out any repairs in question within a reasonable timescale as determined by the tribunal. If there is a dispute between you and us about something included in your tenancy agreement, either you or we can apply to the independent arbitration tribunal to help find a solution. If you have a dispute with another Southwark tenant, you can also ask our arbitration tribunal for help in resolving this. How to apply to the arbitration tribunal Please see Southwark’s website at www.southwark.gov.uk to apply online or call 020 7525 7429. The tribunal panel – what to expect at a hearing Both you and we can attend and be represented. The tribunal may call witnesses and question any witnesses that are called. The tribunal panel will allow you or your representative to question the officer representing us and any witnesses. The tribunal tries to provide its decision in writing within 28 days of the hearing.
www.southwark.gov.uk
16
10 Access to information Information about all our services is available via www.southwark.gov.uk When discussing housing matters with you, we often need to ask for personal details about you and members of your family. We also may need to discuss personal family matters that affect your housing situation. We will treat some of the information you give us in confidence. However, we may need to share some important details you give us with other public organisations (for example, the Benefits Agency or HM Revenue and Customs). We will tell you what information we are likely to pass on. You must let us know in advance if you want to see information that is kept on our housing file about you, your household or the property (including any application which you have made for rehousing and documents in our possession relating to the block and estate where the property is situated) except the following information: • Personal information that identifies other people who have not agreed to the disclosure of their personal data and where, on balance, it appears wrong to provide it unless it is reasonable in all the circumstances to disclose the information without their agreement, for example medical information and casework reports from social workers and welfare officers, complaints from other tenants and neighbours or comments by housing staff • Personal information the disclosure of which might cause serious harm to you or some other individual, for example another member of your household • Personal information the disclosure of which would or would be likely to prejudice an investigation into the behaviour or activities of the tenant, for example if the investigation is likely to involve the police; if it may lead to the creation of an Antisocial Behaviour Order; or if it is in connection with eviction proceedings • Personal information the disclosure of which might prejudice the prevention and detection of crime, the prosecution or apprehension of offenders or the assessment or collection of any tax or duty. The information we are able to give you will be provided on payment of a fee of £10 and your request will be dealt with promptly and in any case within 40 days.
Tenants’ Handbook
17
If we fail to provide the information within 40 days you have the right to refer the matter to the Customer Resolution Team. If the matter is not resolved you will be advised of your right of appeal to the Information Commissioner. If you believe that any of the factual information held about you is inaccurate you are entitled to request it be corrected or erased. You should explain what information you consider to be inaccurate and, if appropriate, provide a written statement of the correct information to us. This written statement should be annexed to the file. We will consider your request within 28 days of receipt of the same. Should we fail to respond to you within that 28 day timescale you may refer the dispute to us under the Customer Resolution Team complaints procedure. If we agree to correct or erase part of your personal information you will be informed what changes have been made. If we believe the information is correct and are unable to agree the changes that have been requested we will again inform you. Where we do not agree to the changes you may refer the dispute to us under the complaints procedure. If however the matter is not resolved then you will be advised of your right of appeal to the Information Commissioner.
www.southwark.gov.uk