Leaseholder STAR
Consultation area and Response
The Questionnaire was sent to 343 Leaseholders of properties across Cornwall. To date we have received 84 responses a 25% response rate. Many respondents failed to answer all the questions leading to some inconsistencies in the statistics.
31 of these responses came from South East Cornwall, 20 from North Cornwall and 25 from Mid Cornwall.
Considering everything, how satisfied overall are you with Cornwall Housing?
The majority of responses were positive with over 70% of respondents saying that they are‘Fairly’ or ‘Very Satisfied’ with the service.Six people said they were very dissatisfied
The neighbourhood as a place to live
83% of All respondents are ‘Fairly’ or ‘VerySatisfied’with their neighbourhood as a place to live. There is a strong correlation between dissatisfaction and ASB with 4 of the 5 respondents ‘Very Dissatisfied’ with their neighbourhood saying that they have experienced ASB.
Value for money
Only 9 respondents said that they would not recommend Cornwall Housing to a friend or relative, with 34saying that they might and 35 saying that they would.
Similarly,50 out of 81 respondents said that they are ‘Fairly’ or ‘VerySatisfied’that they are receiving value for money.
Comments from those dissatisfied include:
“Admin charge too big when nothing has been done”
“Work was carried out to my property which I neither asked for nor required … for which I was over charged on my service charge”
“I feel that there are not value for money as the cleaning of communal stairs is poor.”
“No Evidence of what is being done”
“Extremely poor cleaning at very expensive prices”
“When I have received my service charges there is always work stated and charged for which has not been carried out”
“We pay 2 sets of charges + 'admin' fees for insurance + ground rent for what?”
“There is very little maintenance carried out to the property and its surroundings. It is run down and disrespected by some residents housed here”
“Yearly Charge isn’t too large a sum for maintenance of green/communal areas in neighbourhood. What would be good would be an annual check of such areas by a qualified person, so repairs can be done”
“As a leaseholder I get charged for things that are not applicable”
“We are not asked about any monies to be spent, and then have to pick up the bill. Bins are never emptied
From a responded how is satisfied he receives value for money “My response does not mean I think CH gives good service. The service charges are low, which in my mind equates with "not much service"
Contact with Cornwall Housing
Overall over 75% of all respondents said that they are ‘Fairly’ or ‘Very Satisfied’ overall with contacting Cornwall Housing.
However 6 leaseholders were ‘Very Dissatisfied’.
Of the 49people reported that they contacted Cornwall housing in the last 12 months,32contacted us by telephone, 7 via email, 6 by letter and 4 in person and 1 other.
Of these 49, 22 people said they found it easy getting in touch with the right person, 17 found it difficult and 10 neither helpful nor difficult.
Encouragingly only 5 people found our staff unhelpful, with 10 saying they found them neither helpful nor unhelpful and 33 saying they were helpful.
However only just over half (26) of people who remembered the outcome said that their problem was dealt with.
There does not appear to be any correlation between how people have contacted us and whether they found us helpful, easy to reach or able to deal with the request.
Comments regarding contacting CHL included:
“Luckily all the people with whom I need to deal are pleasant and helpful but I HATE the 0300 number! and it costs money, especially from a mobile. It takes to long to get a response”
Repairs and Improvements
Only 15 people reported having improvements by CHL in the past 12 months making it difficult to draw conclusions. Of these 3 were Very Satisfied,4wereFairly Satisfied, were Fairly Dissatisfied and 3 wereVery Dissatisfied. Two further respondents said they were very dissatisfied with improvements despite answering that they had had no repairs or improvements done.
Though these results should be taken with some caution due to the low numbers of respondents Being told when workers would call and Time taken to do the workwere viewed more poorly than Attitude of workers, Overall quality of work and Tidying up and clearing rubbish.
Comments from respondents with negative experiences include:
“It has been like a 'cowboy builders' TV programme and is still not finished; scaffolders were a danger as was the scaffolding – Health and Safety did not mean anything to them. Nothing improved from then till now”
“For a few years now we have had problems with water pipes leaking in between walls and outside, your people have been to repair them a few times, but I feel the problem has not been properly solved and a live in constant fear of having more water bills valuing £1k up to £2.5k”
“When Painting work was done in summer 2012, I felt the charge of £500+ to me as a leaseholder was a bit high. Also I had no prior warning of this work or the cost of it. The 1st I knew was when my tenant moved out and I found an overdue invoice at the property. I had notified CC Housing of my address but whichever dept. sent the invoice obviously didn't know it. An example of one hand not knowing what the other is doing.”
Dealing with anti-social behaviour
22 people reported ASB in their neighbourhood.
Of these 7 reported drug taking, 6reported drunkenness, 8 had problems with litter/ fly tipping, had experienced vandalismand 5 cited individual neighbours. Of these respondents 10 were fairly or very dissatisfied and only 3 were fairly satisfied. Though the numbers of people are still small there did not appear to be any difference in the level of ASB or satisfaction in how is dealt with across the different regions.
Comments from respondents with negative experiences include:
“Drug users that live in area, leave needles rubbish etc outside have loud music playing and much more”
“Shouting and drinking late at night in the street, groups of youths gathering, Fly tipping, Excessive parking”
“Only the small matter of tenants hanging their washing on the railings although clothes lines are provided in the yard”
“The Tenant below was evicted through ASBO team after too long: other 'druggies' then moved in and stink out hallways which enters our property and we get told to log it”
“Dogs barking at all hours and fouling. Drunken fighting and arguing at 2am by youngsters”
“As a service there are no repercussions to the council only to the community when you constantly move 'vulnerable' homeless drug addicts in to areas with lots of young families. Locals do not stand a chance of getting these properties when they arise. These people make no contribution to a community and I feel the council need to consider the community they are placing these people in. You are driving young families away by giving 2/3 bedroom to outsiders instead of locals with need.”
Communication and information from Cornwall Housing
74% of all respondents said find CHL to be Very or Fairly Good at keeping them informed.
Unsurprisingly the preferred method of contact was by letter. This is naturally a very biased response given that the data comes from respondents to the postal survey.
Considering your views and leaseholder involvement
Fewer respondents expressed satisfaction that we listen to leaseholder views and act upon them with 20 correspondents Fairly of Very Dissatisfied.
Less than half of all respondents were ‘Very’ or ‘Fairly Satisfied’ with the opportunities to be involved in the improvement of their home and housing service.
The preference for letters of postal surveys is continued as a way of getting leaseholder views. Personal Visits and Telephone calls were the other popular options.