Report 2012 - Wishaw and District Housing Association

Managing Tenancies
Common Housing Register
At the end of March 2012 there were 2,821 applicants on the common
Housing Register looking for housing from Wishaw and District
Housing Association.
Allocations
Set against the 2,821 applicants above, we had only 67 properties
available for let last year, of which:
16 24% Were allocated to existing tenants of the Association
whose housing was no longer suitable.
50 75% Went to applicants on the Association’s waiting list.
This includes nominations from North Lanarkshire
Council.
1 1% Were allocated to households referred to the
Association under the agreement we have with the
Scottish Refugee Council.
We continue to operate a 25% Nominations Agreement with North
Lanarkshire Council and to accept Section 5 referrals of homeless
households.
New Tenant Visits
We offer all new tenants the opportunity of a home visit within six
weeks of moving in to help people settle and provide continuing
advice and information. However, if people don’t have the time or feel
they do not need a visit, then we respect their wishes. Of the 49 visits
scheduled to be carried out this year:
29 59% Were carried out within the six week target.
2 4% Were carried out later on a date and time more
convenient for the tenant.
18 37% Declined our settling-in service.
Void Management
Last year the average timescale for carrying out all repairs and
re-letting the 67 properties vacated was 17 days.
37 56% Were re-let within two weeks.
17 25% Were re-let within two to four weeks.
11 16% Required more extensive repairs or multiple offers and
were re-let within five to eight weeks.
2 3% Required more extensive repairs or multiple offers and
took more than eight weeks to relet.
A clear corollary of the low void period is a correspondingly low 0.3%
loss in rental income which compares very favourably with other
landlords:
Average void rent loss for the RSL sector* 1.1%
Average void rent loss for our ‘Peer Group’ of similar size
and type landlords* 0.5%
Our target maximum rent loss 0.3%
WDHA actual void rent loss for 2011/12 0.3%
*Based on Registered Social Landlord Statistics 2010/11
Rent Levels
Like everyone else, the Association has to accept rises in costs and, as
our main source of income is from rents this inevitably means an
increase in rents. However we are also very aware of the financial
burden many of our tenants are facing and therefore we sought to
minimise the increase for this year. We are pleased that for the second
year running our increase of 4% was less than inflation at the time it
was decided upon.
After the increase was applied our average weekly rents were:
2apt 3apt 4apt 5apt+
£54.18 £60.48 £69.78 £74.07
Comparison with other local landlords, and particularly with those in
our peer group, indicate that our rents continue to remain amongst
the lowest, and, through our prompt payment scheme, tenants have
the opportunity to reduce their final bill still further.
Our Prompt Payment Scheme
The Association’s Prompt Payment Scheme paid out to over 350
tenants. The scheme makes a cash payment to tenants who ensure
that their rent is paid every month on time.
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