Repairs and maintenance: how can social landlords improve the standard of service?
The Housing Ombudsman announced an increase of 65% for complaints from residents regarding repairs and maintenance this year. This Inside Housing webinar, sponsored by Localz, asked a panel of experts how they are working to change this and what role technology plays
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Recent months have seen highly publicised cases of poor standards of living in social housing, and the Housing Ombudsman has announced an increase of 65% for complaints from residents regarding repairs and maintenance.
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The most common complaint to the Housing Ombudsman was landlords’ failure to respond to requests for repairs. While some of this might be partly due to the backlog caused by lockdowns and staff catching COVID-19, to form a strategy for the future it is vital that organisations have an effective system for residents to register a repair and receive good communication, a timely service, access to information regarding their home and regular updates on maintenance works.
As a result, the ombudsman has made changes to its complaint-handling code, which includes the obligations on landlords to raise awareness of the complaints process to its residents. Landlords have until 1 October achieve this.
Our webinar, sponsored by Localz, asked experts:
- How they manage their repairs and maintenance service
- What changes have been made in the past two years to improve communication with residents
- How customer service technology plays a role
Inside Housing and Localz webinar: participants
Jennifer Ryans, head of dispute resolution, Housing Ombudsman
Ms Ryans has extensive experience and knowledge of housing-related issues including tenancy management, managing repairs and improvements, and tackling anti-social behaviour.
She joined the Housing Ombudsman in September 2012 as an investigator, became a dispute resolution manager in 2015 and was appointed as head of dispute resolution in November 2019.
Ms Ryans is a qualified solicitor in Ireland, England and Wales and has previously worked as an adjudicator for the Financial Ombudsman Service and as a senior manager in the housing department of a local authority. She has been involved in the development of work in local resolution at the Housing Ombudsman.
Dean Mahoney, sales director, Localz
Mr Mahoney has a decade of experience in driving sales and supporting growth in the telematics and technology space. He works alongside the vice-president of sales to lead Localz’s commercial team in the UK, where he has contributed to rapid growth in the EMEA market.
Mr Mahoney is motivated by helping service companies to enhance business processes and prioritise customer engagement.
Andrew Rysdale, assistant director of property, Fairhive Homes
Mr Rysdale is assistant director of property at Fairhive Homes where he leads a team of 150 colleagues responsible for all property, repair and maintenance issues for the organisation’s 8,500 homes.
He is a chartered building surveyor, a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Mr Rysdale started his career almost 30 years ago in a private surveying practice before moving into the social housing sector, where he is passionate about providing a high level of customer satisfaction while ensuring that the team maintains a commercial mindset.
Sign up to the Tenant and Resident Engagement Conference
Join us at this leading one-day event designed to help landlords and tenants achieve meaningful engagement following the Social Housing White Paper sector reforms, covering culture change, co-production and how to engage tenants on climate change, building safety, disrepair and more.
There is a free tenant place for every delegate pass booked by a landlord.
To view the agenda and book your delegate pass, click here.
