Estate Management Policy

Part of Fairhive's Estate Management Framework - Level 2 policy approval.

1. Introduction

1.1. This policy encompasses estate management activity and is specific to land and property that is owned by us.

1.2. Estate Management refers to the effective management of the environment around our properties and any common areas (within our title), to ensure that the neighbourhood is an attractive, clean, well maintained, safe and secure place to live and that we are actively making a positive contribution to our neighbourhoods.

1.3. Estate Services – The service that we provide to the communal areas of our sites e.g. estate management (including health & safety inspections), communal building cleaning and grounds maintenance.

1.4. We are committed to investing in our neighbourhoods and communities.

1.5. Not all Estate Management functions fall directly within our remit and we understand the importance of liaising effectively with local authorities and other partner agencies in this regard.

2. Policy Statement

2.1. Our approach will include:

2.1.1. A pro-active approach to Estate Management, delivering high standards and providing value for money.

2.1.2. Meeting all relevant legal and regulatory standards in delivering our estate services. These include the ‘Neighbourhood and Community’ Regulatory Standard and, also Tenant Satisfaction Measure for ‘Responsible Neighbourhood Management’. By doing so, we will deliver estate services which demonstrate value for money to our residents and improve customer satisfaction within our neighbourhoods.

2.1.3. Regularly checking the quality of estate services provided to ensure they meet the required standards. Some of these ‘quality’ audits are carried out with residents’ participation.

2.1.4. Undertaking decorations to the communal area of all our Independent Living Schemes and flatted blocks on a rolling cyclical decorations programme.

2.1.5. Providing internal notice boards in flatted block communal areas detailing useful contact information together with cleaning and Estate Officer inspection schedules.

2.1.6. Seeking to maintain the environment of our neighbourhoods and thereby the wellbeing of our residents. We will look to work in partnership with our residents, our internal teams and other relevant agencies or public bodies where it is effective to do so, in order to achieve this.

2.1.7. Wherever possible, designing out irregular boundaries and small landscaped areas to enable more cost-effective service delivery.

2.1.8. Influencing the design of new communal areas to make sure that they provide clean, safe and well-maintained environments for our residents.

2.1.9. Ensuring that communal areas are kept clean, safe and well-maintained. We will provide a cleaning service to maintain the communal areas of flats that are in blocks as well as our Independent Living Schemes.

2.1.10. Inspecting the communal areas of our flatted blocks on a minimum monthly basis to identify repairs, pick up on Health & Safety matters and assess performance of building cleaning and grounds maintenance contractors.

2.1.11. Independent Living Scheme blocks will be inspected weekly (with the exception of over Christmas) as part of our Health & Safety Checks.

2.1.12. Ensuring that our contractors use cleaning materials that are environmentally friendly, non-corrosive and safe. We will take appropriate precautions with the control of substances hazardous to health & will provide training to employees who are responsible for using them.

2.1.13. We will appoint a suitably competent Fire Risk Assessor to carry out routine inspections of all communal blocks, to ensure continued compliance with Fire Safety Regulations and to minimise fire safety and wider health & safety risks within our blocks and schemes. Fire Risk Assessments will be undertaken annually for our Independent Living Schemes and on a two-yearly basis for General Needs blocks. Assessments will be formally recorded, kept under review, and all identified actions will be prioritised and completed within specified timescales.

2.1.14. Inspecting and monitoring the external condition of our homes and gardens. We will record issues such as overgrown gardens, rubbish, bulky waste, repairs, vandalism and fly-tipping and take the appropriate action to resolve.

2.1.15. Ensuring that communal soft landscaping areas and trees, growing on these areas, are maintained in accordance with the grounds maintenance contract specification and our Tree Management Strategy.

2.1.16. Working closely with the Health & Safety Team and other internal teams to carry out Fire Risk Assessments. The Estate Officer/Independent Living Coordinator will contribute to this through regular inspections and assessments of shared areas, ensuring that all fire safety information and signage is present, visible and in a good condition. They will also check to make sure that any fire systems are working correctly (where possible and practicable to do so), that fire door seals are present and in good condition and that any electrical and gas cupboards (and plant rooms) are secure and clear of items and waste.

2.1.17. Maintaining a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to keeping communal areas free of obstructions, rubbish and personal belongings, to minimise the risk a potential impact of fire. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that residents and their visitors do not block entrances, corridors or designated fire escape routes.

2.1.18. Periodically surveying all trees grown on our communal land to form maintenance priorities, manage risk and ensure that dangerous, decaying or dead trees are attended to as necessary.

2.1.19. Taking swift action to tackle anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and graffiti.

We will act in accordance with our Anti-Social Behaviour Policy to achieve this.

2.1.20. Providing estate services, in line with our tenancy agreements and charging a service charge for these services. Services may be enhanced for our residents at flatted schemes and Independent Living Schemes.

2.1.21. Enforcing tenancy terms and conditions using legal action to address any tenancy breaches where it is appropriate to do so.

2.1.22. Involving residents in monitoring estate standards to help identify priorities and agree improvements. We will work with residents on environmental improvement projects to improve external areas where the need for this has been agreed by us.

2.1.23. Ensuring that communal area repairs are dealt with in accordance with our Customer Service Commitments.

2.1.24. Providing a de-icing/gritting service to identified areas such as our Independent Living Schemes, and the rear slope/bin area at Walton Court Centre when the temperature falls below -2.5 degrees centigrade in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in relevant service contracts.

2.1.25. Providing a leaf clearance/collection service, twice a year, to our Independent Living Schemes in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in our Grounds Maintenance Service contract.

2.1.26. Requiring residents to dispose of unwanted bulky items, refuse and medical waste, including sharps in accordance with local authority and National Health Service arrangements.

2.1.27. Remove fly-tipped rubbish and dumped items of bulky waste in accordance with our Customer Service Commitments.

2.1.28. Attempting to identify people responsible for dumping rubbish and fly-tipping and taking appropriate action to resolve and discourage this. We will look to work with other agencies to resolve and discourage rubbish dumping and fly-tipping on our land.

2.1.29. Requiring our residents to prevent pest infestations by keeping their homes and gardens clean and tidy. We will require residents to dispose of food and waste appropriately in order to minimise the risk of infestations. We will make clear when it is their responsibility to remove and arrange for infestations to be treated.

2.1.30. Aiming to keep communal areas free from vermin, pests and insect infestation, recharging residents through service charges if appropriate. We will take care to develop, enhance and protect wildlife areas and protected species, in particular nesting birds, bats and bees.

2.1.31. Reserving the right to alter, add to or modify estate services in the interest of good Estate Management for the benefit of customers or in order to demonstrate value for money. This will be subject to resident consultation where appropriate.

2.1.32. Offering a chargeable gardening service for residents who find it challenging to maintain their gardens.

2.1.33. Requiring that only vehicles which are roadworthy, insured and taxed are parked within our maintained parking areas and taking appropriate action to deal with any abandoned and untaxed vehicles on our land.

2.1.34. Requiring vehicles subject to a SORN are not driven or parked on our land.

2.1.35. Monitoring the condition of our garage sites to ensure that these are maintained and are being used by individuals in accordance with their garage licence agreements.

2.1.36. Taking appropriate action where residents or their visitors fail to properly control their dogs and/or clean up after them in our communal spaces or on our estates.

2.1.37. Communicating and working closely with other agencies – such as local Councils – to make sure that areas owned by other agencies across the wider community are clean, well maintained and safe.

2.1.38. We will ensure that our signage on our estates is clear, appropriate and well maintained. We will ensure that Health & Safety and other mandatory signage is present where required and we will replace and remove any broken signage that we are responsible for.

2.1.39. Communal bins are for use by residents only and must be used in accordance with local authority guidelines. As part of the cleaning contract all communal bin stores with flatted blocks will be swept by the cleaning contractors on every visit.

2.1.40. Outsourcing the collection of excessive waste, decontamination works and/or bio-cleans required at communal bin stores on sites in order to manage the disposal of waste as effectively and as efficiently as possible in order to minimise fire safety, health & safety and pest control risks.

2.1.41. We are committed to improving environmental sustainability and will work with internal teams, partner agencies and residents to look at ideas/options and/or initiatives to deliver this in and around our sites and neighbourhoods.

3. Outcomes and Monitoring

3.1. We monitor policies to ensure they deliver the expected outcomes, services and standards, costs and other key performance indicators. Regular contractor meetings, site inspections, performance audits, KPI monitoring, Resident Inspections, Estate Services Resident’s Group forum and customer satisfaction surveys are typical of the monitoring systems in use as part of this policy.

3.2. Regular monitoring of the Estate Management service performance will be conducted by the Housing Services Manager and the Estates & Contracts Manager. Our Estate Management Customer Service Commitments will be reported on quarterly.

3.3. We will report on:

Adherence to our customer service standard relating to removal of fly-tipped material.
Level of customer satisfaction with the environment in our communities (identified by external satisfaction surveys undertaken by a fully independent third-party agency).

3.4. Customer Service Commitments and contract specification swill be monitored in the following ways:

Regular estate walkabouts by Neighbourhood Housing Managers at intervals throughout each year, publicised in advance to interested parties including residents and partner agencies.
Independent Living Scheme walkabouts are carried out by the Independent Living Scheme Co-ordinators on a weekly basis.
Involvement with residents and/or residents’ representatives (resident group members) in estate inspections and performance audits.
Involvement of residents in the specification, procurement and monitoring of contracts for estate services.
Feedback received through satisfaction surveys.

4. Review

4.1. We will review this policy when a business need arises and in line with the relevant Policy Framework. Our review programme is driven by service improvement initiatives, changes in legislation, regulation, practice or as a result of feedback from key stakeholders. Typically, we review policies on a three-year cycle.

5. Impacts

Resident/Employee Implications -

As part of this review, estate management policies from across the sector have been consulted and reviewed with improvements incorporated to ensure that our approach, ways of working and overall, updated policy would still be considered ‘best practice’.

The Housing Services Manager is responsible for the implementation and monitoring of this policy.

Regular training of employees, performance monitoring and reporting will be carried out by the Housing Services Manager, Estates & Contracts Manager, Neighbourhood Team Leader and Independent Living Team Manager.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion -

We will ensure that in delivering our services we continue to be inclusive and representative. We will ensure that this is achieved through the delivery of our Equality and Diversity Policy.

We will ensure that this policy is widely available at our office and on our website. The policy can be made available in large print, braille or on audio tape upon request.

This policy will be applied to all residents regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partner status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Value for Money -

As part of our commitment to deliver an economical, efficient and effective Estate Management service, we will use external benchmarking to monitor services.

We are committed to continuous improvement with our services and will consider ‘best practice’ from across the sector and will look to implement further service improvements as and where appropriate.

We will regularly review estate and communal services and costs to ensure that quality and cost is acceptable to our customers.

When procuring contracts related to this policy, we will continue to look at achieving value for money and providing social value. Residents are involved in this process and their comments and feedback were taken into during the procurement and awarding of the existing Grounds Maintenance and Block Cleaning contracts.

Data Protection -

All due care is taken to protect data held by us and in particular, we ensure we keep all resident data secure and meet with data protection requirements.

Accountability -

This policy has been revised following consultation with the Residents Forum.

Quality -

We look to ensure that our residents are safe in their homes by supporting the provision of well-maintained homes which are in line with legislative and regulatory requirements.

When things go wrong -

Residents can communicate concerns through our formal channels. Via: telephone, email, in person, our website or our social media channels.