Welcome to your residents’ newsletter. This is where we can share essential information with you about housing services and update you about the things you need to know.
In this edition of Open Door we’ve got information on:
- Open Housing Portal
- Cost of living crisis
- Keeping you safe in your home
- Carbon monoxide
- Be scam aware: housing disrepair claims
- Improving your home
- Work experience for tomorrow’s tradespeople
- Our Contractor Code of Conduct
- 4 Million Homes - empowering tenants
Open Housing Portal
Our Open Housing portal brings together housing services, and registering will allow you to:
- apply for housing
- check your rent account
- make a payment
- send a message
- email your Housing Management Officer
- view your repairs
- report anti-social behaviour
You can set up or log in to your Open Housing account online, using your tenancy reference, which starts "1900" or "600", or your application reference which starts "800".
Cost of living crisis
The rising cost of living is now affecting us all more than ever. We encourage you to pay your rent in full, however, if you’re struggling with payments, it’s important to contact your Housing Management Officer (HMO) as soon as possible for help and support and possibly avoid any unnecessary legal action.
Don’t wait for your rent arrears to become a problem; the sooner you tell us, the easier it will be to help you resolve them. Your HMO can help you put a repayment plan in place, including setting up a monthly direct debit to make payments easier to manage.
For rent balances, to make a payment and set up a direct debit, contact your HMO.
If your finances could do with a general workout or if you could do with talking to someone about managing, see Talk Money advice on the Live Well York website.
You’ll find help and resources along with advice on the small changes which could make a significant difference to your finances.
If you or someone you know aren’t online but want this information, contact us on telephone: 01904 551006, or ask your Local Area Coordinator, Age UK or staff at any Explore York library to print the information you need.
Keeping you safe in your home
We carry out routine checks to help keep you safe in your home. This includes annual gas safety checks, electrical testing every 5 years and, in properties that require it, we will carry out water hygiene assessments and fire safety checks.
It’s really important that you allow us access to carry these out and are available for appointments we arrange.
It's a breach of your tenancy if you do not allow us access into your home for essential checks.
Contact us on 01904 551550 (option 4, option 1) to rearrange if the appointment is not suitable.
Find out more about annual safety checks.
Carbon monoxide
You can’t see, taste or smell carbon monoxide (CO), but it can kill.
New regulations require us to install a CO alarm in your home if you have a gas appliance. These alarms detect the presence of CO gas in the air and emit a loud alarm when elevated levels of CO are detected.
CO is a colourless, odourless, and highly toxic gas that can be released by faulty appliances. The alarm gives an early warning allowing you to evacuate and seek fresh air if dangerous levels of CO are detected. The alarm must remain in your property to keep you safe.
If your alarm sounds, call the National Gas Emergency Service on telephone: 0800 111 999.
See more information about carbon monoxide on the Northern Gas Networks website.
Be scam aware: housing disrepair claims
Disrepair claim companies have been contacting some of you to make money from you and your home.
Companies will make approaches by door knocking or calling you. To get into your home, they will often say that they are from ‘the housing’ or working on behalf of City of York Council and that they are there to complete a survey on the property. Sometimes, they may carry an ID badge similar to one that our staff wear. They are not calling on behalf of City of York Council. They are claims management firms or firms of solicitors seeking business. Please always check the identity of someone calling at your home: legitimate callers won’t mind.
One of their main aims is to make money - up to £500 per referral. Some may tell you that your home needs repairing and encourage you to put a disrepair claim in against your landlord, City of York Council.
If you need a repair to your home, please don’t put in a disrepair claim. Call us on telephone: 01904 551550 (option 4, option 1) so we can carry it out. You can check progress on a repair through your Open Housing account.
Improving your home
Goodbye Tenants’ Choice - hello Home Improvement Programme.
The Tenants’ Choice property improvement programme has been updated and renamed the Home Improvement Programme. It will continue to upgrade your homes with new kitchens, bathrooms and electrical work, and now includes energy-efficiency measures to help you manage fuel bills.
The new energy-efficiency improvements and upgrades to your homes could include insulation in lofts, solid walls (likely to be passageways), under floors (usually timber-suspended floors) and wall cavities on external works.
These measures make homes more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and cost-effective, whilst improving overall comfort. A survey will be completed ahead of the work to determine which energy efficiency measures are required in your home.
Our new Investment Manager John Hughes says:
We are delighted to welcome our new contract partners to deliver the Home Improvement Programme. BM Services and Urban Construction are both local contractors which is great for the local economy and our carbon footprint.
"With these new partners on board, we look forward to delivering works to modernise your homes across the city over the coming 5 years."
Work experience for tomorrow’s tradespeople
York College students are being given hands-on work experience at council sites by our Building Services team, funded by our contractor Jewson’s community fund.
This initiative aims to support the next generation of much-needed tradespeople who will be needed to maintain and improve residents’ homes. The idea is to help students studying trade courses to stay engaged in their studies and give them the opportunity to work outside the classroom by putting their learning into practice on real properties.
It’s being funded through a partnership with Jewson Partnership Solutions which runs the materials store at Hazel Court and pays into a community fund.
Dominic Billington, Managed Stores Contract Co-ordinator, says:
The pilot aims to give supervised students a real property to bring up to a given standard, with deadlines and feedback on the quality of their work.
"Students from York College’s painting and decorating course, worked on The Beehive, in Acomb, which provides short breaks for children and young people with complex disabilities.
"The students repaired damaged walls, repainted living areas, bathrooms and corridors and made that section of the building look like new. Their feedback on the experience is amazing too.
"The long-term aim is to ensure the students engage in and complete their studies and then view City of York Council as an employer they’d like to work for, either through apprenticeships or in a fulltime role working in Building Services.”
The pilot started in June after the students finished their exams. It will continue until the end of this academic year and then start again in September.
Our Contractor Code of Conduct
We recently sent a survey to over 1,000 tenants asking about our draft Contractor Code of Conduct.
You said:
Through the survey, the following feedback was gathered:
- contractors should be respectful
- they should tell you what they need to do and what you should expect - for example, how much disruption there will be
- parking and keeping appointments are important
We did:
With the feedback we received we produced a new Contractor Code of Conduct, which is now shared with all contractors working with us. It states that contractors should:
- show their identification card
- confirm the work they need to do with the tenant, explaining the extent of the disruption and telling them how long it will take
- undertake work with courtesy, consideration, and respect
4 Million Homes - empowering tenants
4 Million Homes provide guidance on the rights for social housing tenants, leaseholders, and shared owners.
It covers a wide range of issues including repairs and maintenance for your home and communal areas, anti-social behaviour, and how to work with your landlord.
See the Four Millions Homes website for more information.
Open Door
- Email: housing.serviceimprovments@york.gov.uk
- Telephone: 01904 555556