Service Standards for jLiving
We promise to:
- Do what we say we will do
- Respond to your queries promptly and efficiently
- Tell you what we will do next if we cannot answer your query
- Protect your personal information at all times
- Provide a people focussed service by employing well-trained, multi-skilled and committed staff
- Treat people fairly and take positive action to make our services accessible to all tenants
- Seek your feedback and use this to make improvements to our services
- Be professional, helpful, polite and treat you with respect
You can help us by:
- Treating our staff with respect and courtesy
- Providing us with constructive feedback about our service
- Asking us to explain anything you are unsure about
- Giving us all the information that we need to help you and by keeping your contact details up-to-date.
Contacting us by phone
When you phone we will endeavour to:
- Answer the phone quickly
- Greet you in a friendly and professional manner and give our name
- Keep the time you are kept on hold to a minimum and keep you updated on any delays if we are dealing with your enquiry.
- Try to put you through to the right person first time
- Try to resolve the query quickly
- Ensure our voicemail reflects our availability and informs you when we will next be free to deal with your enquiry
Contacting us via email
When you email us we will:
- Acknowledge the receipt of your email or provide an initial response within 2 working days of receipt of your email
- Aim to respond in full to your email within 10 working days if your query could not be answered first time
- Ensure we have out of office messages enabled when we are away from the office, providing you with alternative contact details for another member of staff to deal with your query
- We consider all emails to be as important as any other form of communication and therefore all emails will be written to a professional standard.
Contacting us by letter
When you write to us we will:
- Ensure the letter is passed to the most relevant member of staff who will contact you directly via phone or email within 2 working days
- We will ensure that a full response is provided within 10 working days or write to you and let you know of any delays on this.
Visiting our offices
If you call into the office we will:
- Keep to all pre-booked appointment times
- Where possible, have a member of staff meet you, without an appointment within 15 minutes to answer a general query.
- Not keep you waiting unnecessarily and keep you informed of what is happening and the reason for any delays
- Give you the opportunity to speak to someone in private by providing a meeting room whenever possible
Visiting your Home:
- Clearly display a company identification badge
- Ask for permission to enter your home and clearly explain the reasons for our appointment and visit
- Be respectful of your home and lifestyle
- Aim to keep all appointment times or let you know if we will be delayed for any reason
- Inform you at least 1 working day in advance if we need to change or cancel an appointment
- In extenuating circumstances such as sickness or emergencies we will aim to give you as much notice as possible to cancel or change an appointment
Our normal working hours are Monday to Fridays 9 – 5.30pm, we will always try to make an appointment time that is convenient for you. Please note that from the end of September until the end of March, our offices close at 2.00pm on Fridays.
Repairs and Maintenance
We will:
- Meet our repair responsibilities outlined in your tenancy agreement.
- Ensure that our Out of Hours call centre holds up to date details in order that they can attend to emergency repairs outside of office hours and summon the correct contractor on your behalf.
- Prioritise repairs and let you know priority times for completion
- Where appropriate, make sure we consult you before we start the work particularly in the case of large scale planned maintenance works.
- Investigate if you are not satisfied with the repairs
- Inspect a sample of completed repairs to assess the standard of work
- invite your feedback, by way of a satisfaction questionnaire to see how we can improve the repairs service
- Take action to recover money from tenants who cause damage to their homes
Rents and Service Charges
We promise to:
- Keep rent increases in line with Government rent policy
- We will let you know if you fall into arrears and offer you support and guidance. We will always treat you sensitively and with respect
- Help with completing Universal Credit forms and provide information on welfare benefits where requested
- provide quarterly rent statements and keep you informed of any changes to your rent or service charge
- Review service charge costs each year to make sure they are accurate and value for money
Anti-Social Behaviour
We will not tolerate any form of antisocial behaviour.
If you experience anti-social behaviour we will:
- Investigate all cases sensitively, fairly and within publicised timescales as shown in our anti- social behaviour policy
- Provide support, carry out emergency repairs within 24 hours, remove offensive graffiti within 48 working hours and give advice and support on security measures
- Where appropriate offer mediation to both parties involved
- Take legal action where necessary to deal with incidents, this may include seeking injunctions which may in turn lead to eviction subject to a court order
Complaints
If we receive a complaint we will:
- Make it easy for you to make a complaint
- Help anyone who requires assistance in making a complaint
- Treat you fairly and respectfully
- Listen and deal with your complaint in a prompt and courteous manner
- Take your complaint seriously and investigate it fully and impartially
- Acknowledge when we get things wrong, and correct any mistakes made and learn from them.
Allocations and Lettings:
We will:
- Aim to make applying for a home with jLiving easy and straightforward
- We will aim to process your housing application within 10 working days
- We will keep you informed about how your application is progressing and let you know how long you may have to wait
- We will carry out a sheltered housing assessment to see if our homes meet your needs within 28 days
- We will give you the chance to view any home you are offered and provide the relevant information to help you decide if it is the right one for you.
Tenant Involvement
We will encourage and ask for your feedback through:
- Tenant satisfaction surveys
- Repairs feedback surveys
- Involvement in monitoring the services we provide
- Actively encourage you to comment and give us feedback on the way we deliver services and provide flexible opportunities for you to engage in a way and at a level that suits you
- Consultation on policy and procedure reviews
Equality and Diversity
jLiving respects and values the differences of our tenants, parties, and staff.
We will treat everyone fairly and with respect.
We will ask you how you would like us to communicate with you and look at the best ways we can do this which could be offering documents in large print, braille or an interpreter if English is not your first language.