Throughout the year we publish on our website, Performance Reports that tell you about the quality of the services we provide.
Our Mission Statement, Objectives and Values set out our commitment to making a positive contribution to you by providing high quality housing services and by participating actively in the community. Hounslow Homes is also fully committed to equality for all people, with positive regard and fair treatment for all our communities.
Our core values are:
- We are here to serve tenants and leaseholders, we value our residents and we aim to impress them everyday by our commitment to service
- We are professional in all our dealings with colleagues, staff and residents
- We treat each other fairly and consistently
- We understand that as individuals, we choose our attitude. In Hounslow Homes we are positive, loyal and upbeat about the company and the work
- We are focused, listen carefully to what people tell us, deliver on our promises and are accountable for our actions
- We have a commitment to learning, innovation and having fun in our work, this goes with a no blame culture
- We are sincere and transparent; there are no hidden agendas and we deal with issues honestly and openly.
- We are committed to actively planning for the future and to delivering on our environmental agenda
Using and accessing our services
Our Customer Service Centre is open form 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday.
Contact the Customer Service Centre on 0800 0856575, minicom 0800 389 98 21 or e-mail to customerservicecentre@hounslowhomes.org.uk
You can:
- Report repairs or make an existing repair enquiry
- Check your rent account, recent payments or other payment options, request a statement or to tell us you are having problems paying your rent (please have your rent account number ready when you call)
Report anti-social behaviour or nuisance neighbour issues
- Get information on renting a garage or reporting a repair to your garage
- Ask about a tenancy matter
- Report an estate problem, such as abandoned vehicle, dumped rubbish or a repair.
If you are a leaseholder you will have additional responsibilities for repairs to your property as set out in your lease.
Emergency Calls
If you have an emergency (e.g. a burst pipe) and the Customer Service Centre is closed, then please call our out of hours service on 020 8583 2222.
Housing Receptions
These are open weekdays between 9am and 5pm. You can visit us to talk about your tenancy, rent account, anti-social behaviour, your estate or any other issue concerning you.
Some of our services are available via this website, such as paying your rent online, or reporting a repair.
We will ensure that information and correspondence about our services is available to you in your language or the format of your choice and we offer a range of communication aids including:
- Type Talk (minicom)
- Audio tapes
- Braille
- Loop systems
- Large Print
- Sign Language Interpreters
Visiting our Receptions
We will ensure that our housing offices have clearly displayed opening hours
We will ensure that our housing receptions are physically accessible
We will keep reception areas clean and tidy
Our staff will wear identity badges, which show their name
Our staff will behave in a professional, polite and courteous manner
If we ever have to close our offices we will:
- Make sure we tell you when the office will re-open
- Give you information about appropriate emergency services and other available options
- Let you know if we have to cancel an appointment and arrange another time.
Appointments and Interviews
We will ensure our ticket queuing systems in our receptions have clear instructions as to how to use them
If you do not have an appointment to see a housing officer we will operate on a first come first served basis
We will try, wherever possible, to offer a choice of times and to provide an appropriate interviewer for any needs you tell us about, including interpreters and signers
We will make sure you know that you can bring someone to an interview with you if this would be helpful to you
We will aim to meet with tenants promptly for interviews or apologise if we are delayed.
Visiting you
We will aim to give you a choice of appointment times when we need to visit you. There are some occasions when we will not offer appointments, normally when we are carrying out tenancy checks. This is to ensure properties are legally occupied by the correct tenant, have not been vandalised or abandoned and to help us identify and target our services to our more vulnerable tenants.
We will let you know as soon as possible if we cannot keep an appointment we have made with you.
We will confirm any agreed action in writing.
Corresponding with you
We will answer all letters, information requests and emails within 10 working days or write within that time to explain the delay in giving you an answer
Our service managers will ensure they take ownership of the issues you raise with them and that an appropriate response is sent to you when they have completed any investigations, which prove to be necessary
We will write in plain English and make sure the full name; address and contact details of the writer are clear on any correspondence we send to you
Our staff will leave an out of office message on email address which include their date of return an alternative contact name for emergencies
Telephone answering
We will answer the telephone within 20 seconds. In some circumstances you call may be directed to an answer machine/voicemail facility and respond to any messages within one working day.
When we answer the telephone, we will tell you our name and what section we work in. If we need to redirect your call, we will tell you why and to whom we are transferring your call.
Working in your Home
Our staff or contractors who will work in your home will:
Not start work to the outside of your home without letting you know
Arrange appointments with you if they need access to your home
Apart from emergencies, only work between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday unless specifically agreed
Keep safe all the materials and equipment used on site
Take away building rubbish form gardens and other areas outside your property
Keep you home secure at all times
Show you their ID before entering your property
Not use radios or smoke in your property
Use dustsheets and protective covers to protect your possessions
Be polite and clear as to what they will be doing in your home
Respect your cultural or personal circumstances
You have the right to refuse to let people into your home if you are not happy about their behaviour (except in an emergency)
What we expect from you
We expect our staff to be polite and courteous when they speak to our tenants, and we believe that our staff are entitled to expect our tenants to act in the same way.
We will take action available against any tenants that are abusive or violent towards our staff.
Getting Involved
Hounslow Homes want to encourage tenants to be involved in making decisions about their homes and estates and the services they receive.
There may be a residents group or association on your estate that you can join. Tenants that wish to set up a group or association can speak to the Tenant Participation Officer in their area for help and advice.
The Hounslow Tenants Compact is an agreement between Hounslow Homes, the London Borough of Hounslow and the Hounslow Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations (HFTRA). It covers more information on commitments to tenants and leaseholders such as:
- Sharing information
- Giving residents groups support, resources, and training
- Giving residents the power to make decisions
- Working in partnership
- Increasing diversity of those taking part
Find out more by visiting 'Be Involved' page on this site.
Our Repairs Service
We aim to carry out 95% of emergency repairs within 24 hours. We will tell you if your repair is an emergency when you report it. We also aim to carry out non-urgent work within 12 days (by appointment) and to complete 90% of all communal repairs within our target timescale.
We aim to service all gas heating and hot water boilers every year
Estate Services
We aim to remove 99.5% of offensive (e.g. racist) graffiti within 2 working days and 96% of all non-offensive graffiti within 7 working days
We will publish details of our caretaking and cleaning standards at each location where a service is provided, so you know what will be done and how often. If you cannot see one on your estate, contact Caretaking Services on 020 8583 6300
We will also provide a communal gardening service and we will ask you for your views about the service every year. We expect 70% of our customers to express satisfaction
We will remove abandoned and dangerous vehicles from our estates – 99% of them within 2 days if they are dangerous or within 7 days otherwise from the date they were reported to our contractor
Tenancy management
When you move into one of our homes we will gave you an information pack about your property and local area.
We will give you advice on welfare and housing benefit whenever you need it, but we do aim to collect all rent that is owed to us. We will take recovery action any customers who do not pay their rent.
Anti-social behaviour
Occasionally some of our tenants will experience problems to do with noise or neighbour nuisance, or even racial harassment, other forms of harassment and domestic violence.
We are committed to working with our partners, e.g. the Police and Mediation Services, to eradicate these problems and to deal with the perpetrators.
We have a specialist Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Team who can be contacted via the Customer Service Centre or in person at your local housing office. The ASB Team includes:
- A professional witness service to help us bring cases to court
- Legal advisors
- Concierge and Neighbourhood Warden service
- Specialist ASB estate managers
- Independent living for older people
- Hounslow Homes works in partnership with the London Borough of Hounslow to provide housing related support and reassurance to people in the community who have particular needs. This includes:
- Tenants living in sheltered accommodation
- Anyone in the community that would benefit from using Linkline, the 24 hours a day, 365 days a year community alarm service
- We aim to:
- Visit tenants in sheltered housing 6 times a week provided the tenant has agreed for us to do so
- Visit all sheltered tenants within an hour in emergencies
- Contact all Linkline users who have not contacted us for more than 6 weeks
- Replace all faulty alarms within 24 hours if the fault is reported to us between Monday and Friday
Home Ownership Services
The Home Ownership Unit provides services to tenants who want to buy their property. It also provides services to leaseholders and service charge paying freeholders who have already bought their properties, either from the council or on the open market.
We aim to issue 95% or response notices to Right To Buy applications within 28 days, and to issue 95% of offer notices detailing price and conditions of purchase, within a further eight weeks for houses or 12 weeks for flats and maisonettes. We will collect 100% of the service charges owed to us and we will take action to recover these costs under the terms of the lease if we need to do so.
The leaseholders handbook explains the service leaseholders should expect to receive and information about leaseholder properties. We also have a leaseholders forum where leaseholders can discuss the service they are receiving.
You can make an appointment to visit the Home Ownership Unit by contact them direct. See the housing contacts page for details. You can also email: home.ownership@hounslowhomes.org.uk, or write to:
Home Ownership Unit
Hounslow Homes’
21 High Street
Feltham
TW13 4AG
If things go wrong
Although Hounslow Homes is committed to providing excellent services to our customers, this doesn’t happen all the time and you may want to let us know you are unhappy by making a complaint.
You may not be getting the level of service we say we will provide or do not agree with our policies or practices. It doesn’t matter whether the service is provided by one of our staff or contractors/partners, we want you to tell us about it so we can put it right.
You can contact the Complaints Team by:
- Writing to them at the Complaints Team, Langdale Centre, 240 Summerwood Road, Isleworth, TW7 7QN
- Calling direct on 020 8583 3737 (minicom/Typetext calls can also be taken)
- Email to complaints.team@hounslowhomes.org.uk
- Fill in a form at your local housing office, which you can pass to a member of staff at the reception desk or post to the above address. If you need help, a member of staff will complete the form for you.
The complaints officer will first arrange for the manager responsible for the service to reply to you.
We will write to you to confirm receipt of your complaint, and tell you when you can expect a reply. This will normally be within 2 weeks of the date you made your complaint. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, we will arrange for the matter to be independently investigated.
You can read more about the complaints service and process in our How to complain about Hounslow Homes' services leaflet.
