Thank you for all the comments we have received on our blog – we have considered all the comments and note there are some key themes that we would like to reply to as follows:
Estimates and Final Accounts accuracy
Accuracy of the service charge estimates and final accounts is part of our action plan- if you access our service charge review page and look at our action plan you will see a number of actions we have put in place to help tackle this issue.
Under the terms of the lease we have to provide estimated and actual accounts and sometimes there will be an over or under spend as we cannot always anticipate what extra services may be needed throughout that year, however our aim is to try to keep the estimates as close to the actual as we possibly can.
More detailed explanatory notes on services
Again this is an item that we have as part of our action plan and an action that we have completed-please refer to the service charge review page and click on the heading STATEMENT DESIGN – we have revised our actual and estimated statements and consulted with our scrutiny panel who have agreed the format- we would welcome any further feed back from customers on these statements.
Satisfaction on services and value for money
We will ensure that going forward we will have better communication with customers on issues that matter to them and improve the standards of customer service.
We also aim as part of the review to get value for money for our customers by monitoring quality of services and having tighter control of the costs.
We have started to evaluate our home owners stock where we have a responsibility to maintain a reserve fund and are producing stock condition surveys that provide a long-term view of the funds required to maintain an adequate Maintenance Reserve.
Shared Ownership and Affordable Housing
Derwent Living is all about providing different kinds of housing options to our customers whether that be student accommodation – retirement living or family homes. The options are there for each customer to choose from. One of the options we provide is Shared Ownership:
Shared ownership was introduced by the government for people who could not afford to buy 100% on the open market and therefore the scheme is aimed to be affordable- As part of the lease terms the shared owner is responsible for all the costs associated with the property although they may only own a 25, 50 or 75% share.
Whilst we will endeavor to reply to all the blogs that we get, we cannot comment on specific issues relating to individual circumstances and would ask that customers contact us directly to discuss these.
We appreciate customers’ patience as these improvements are introduced and welcome any comments on each stage of our review.
