Residents' Annual Report 2010/11 - Swan Housing Association

Your TenancyLeasehold/shared ownership serviceSwan has over 1,100 long leaseholders and sharedowners.It is a specialised service because of all the differentrights and responsibilities in leases.What are we doing?We have:• Listened to what you told us and changed theformat of the actual and estimated service chargebills to explain clearly how the service charge iscalculated.• Improved the process of producing our actual andestimated service charges.• Reviewed our leaseholder policy.• Reviewed the management and administration feefor leaseholders. This means that leaseholderspay the actual costs for providing a leaseholdservice.• Reviewed our service charge policy so that allpeople who pay service charges, includingassured tenants, receive information that is easierto understand.How did we do?Performance April 2010 to March 2011We have:• Established a Leaseholder Forum which has metthree times, but we need more of you to getinvolved. Please contact your LeaseholdManagement Officer if you are interested injoining.• Achieved a 115% collection rate for leaseholderservice charges.Helping you get on the property ladderWhat have you told us?You want to get more involved with the selectionprocess of new contractors. We now have aleaseholder from the Exmouth Estate, TowerHamlets on our tender panel for the re-tendering ofthe grounds maintenance contracts. They will sit onthe panel selecting the contractor, where the keyconsideration will be delivering value for money anda quality service.Improving our services in 2011/2012We will:• Aim to improve leaseholder satisfaction by 2%.• Implement the recommendations of the ServiceCharge Review to make service chargedocumentation easier to understand.• Work in partnership with Gateway HousingAssociation to mystery shop our services.For more information about the leasehold serviceplease visit our website www.swan.org.ukwww.swan.org.uk Residents’ Annual Report 34