Housing Repairs and Maintenance - Literature review Example

HOUSING ISSUES AND HOUSING SOLUTIONS (Student Name) (Course No.) (Lecturer) (University) (Date) Introduction This report is focused on providing a lasting solution to the complaints that the tenants had raised about the estate. Tenants complained about the management taking too long to fix repair issues, the mode of addressing antisocial behaviors as well as the status of empty properties around the estate. Thus, this report is also with the strategies the management has to put in place to improve on rent collection the estate, since to effectively the above tenants’ complaints; cash investment is important (Manville et al. 2016). Given improvement in the living standards and health conditions in residential areas, many individuals would wish to live comfortably once they have paid rent (Wallace 2010). Housing repairs and maintenance Maintenance and repair are some of the essential services that the housing managements and agencies do to the residents. The tenants always prefer to live up to the net worth of their house rent, no disturbance, no disservice, just to maintain their satisfaction. Maintenance activities are sometimes very costly requiring high spending on equipment labor and other overheads. It is a common practice by the management to save for the repair purposes once an original tenant vacates a house. Therefore, it is in order for the the tenants to pay their rents in time to enable the management to effectively deliver repair and maintenance services in time too. The types of housing repairs that can be undertaken in social housing are responsive repair works, cyclical work and capital works. The capital work involves additional investment of capital to improve the housing stock to meet the demand for residential houses. Cyclical housing repairs are done depending on the time and seasons and include activities like painting after a given period, clearing house guttering and lift servicing for homes fitted with lifts. Responsive repairs, on the other hands, are daily, routine, emergency or urgent repairs that the management performs to ensure proper housing conditions for the tenants. With regard to Burney (2005) exhortations, timely effort to make appointment with the tenants for housing repair and maintenance purposes is crucial for effective management. Residents are complaining about the long taken to complete repair and maintenance as well as th failure of the contractors to keep appointment records. Therefore, it is advisable that for the management to involve the residents in decision making. Tenants involvement will enable the management to know when to undertake repair and maintenance services since as some tenants would prefer weekends, others are only free in the evening hours. Those are the appropriate time for making repair appointment because the main aim is enhance the residents’ satisfaction by avoiding untimely disturbance (Bengtsson 2000). Considering the timeframe and convenience of the tenants, repairs good practice requires that the repairs should take considerably short time and the tenant ought to be noticed in advance before the day of repairs (Saugeres & Clapham 1999). The management needs to get right personnel and appropriate tools to hasten the repair process. The quality of the repairs should be up to the standards of given in the good Housing Acts. The average time taken to improve an empty property between re-lets should be compared to the target of the management and the prospective occupant. According to the views of the residents, a greater percentage of the housing repairs took a longer time than had been expected (Norris & Shiels 2004) Maintenance and repair of the houses require specialists who are well versed with what it takes to repair and renovate a house. Good landlords procure quality contracts characterized by strong IT policy, uptime, reduced tender price and standardized diagnostic system lower the cost of repairs while improving rental income. The Shepherds Bush Housing Association (2003) good practice provides that residents should charge a given amount for each of the abortive visit that had been not recorded or agreed upon. The association can adopt this practice to keep contractors on track. Tackling Anti-Social Behaviors Mostly experienced anti-social behaviors in the residential areas included unnecessary noise making, reckless damping, drug dealing, drunkenness, vandalism, and reckless hanging of the teenagers around the residential houses (Burney 2005).These activities endanger the lives of the tenants if not checked by the management. Noise beyond the continuum causes disruptions while increased drug dealing lures the young people into drug abuse which by far, has been the root cause of increased levels of insecurity in the area (Cowan, Pantazis, & Gilroy 2001) .Tenants have a right to be housed. But they do not have the right to be terrorized by those around them (Burney 2005). A well considered preventative measure is important in reducing incidents of antisocial behaviors. Good preventative action can help in betterment of neighborhoods to make the estates more desirable places to live. It is important when the management focus on methods that are less costly but effective. Setting clear tenancy conditions using the tenancy agreement document is important in managing antisocial behaviors. The agreement should clearly set the accepted codes of conducts to which tenants are expected to conform and the management ought to reinforce the message right at sign-up. Maintaining safe and clean neighborhoods is an essential technique in preventing escalation of antisocial behaviors. Failure to control environmental problems such as vandalism, graffiti, and litters lead to a downward spiral of physical deterioration thus, the management needs to set and meet service standards on rapids removal such environmental problems (Barnes 2003). The management can also consider introducing a Starter Tenancy Policy where new tenants are offered a probationary period during the management closely monitor their behaviors. Those exhibiting mischievous behaviors should be permanently evicted from the properties. The management can also introduce the signing of good behavior agreement by every incoming tenant. This agreement should be binding to both landlords and tenants hence any tenant found breaching the agreement should be evicted or punished. An example of good practice ASB management can adopt City of Edinburgh Council’s (CEC) good practice. Edinburgh City Council employed mediation in solving disputes among people. Mediation offers a way to solve disputes between people based on common ground. It is always effective in solving disputes associated with low-level antisocial behaviors (Chartered Institute of Housing 2014). An independent third party assists the disputing to reach a common ground through intensive discussion of their problems. However, this technique will require the housing providers to have a well-trained officer in mediating and dispute solution (Barnes 2003). Additionally, pertinent to this housing agency is the good practice of New Charter Housing Trust Group (NCHTG) which involves intensive family support (Audit Commission (2004). As part of support contract NCHTG accepted to move in on a family intervention projects (FIPs) basis which was aimed to model family members’ behaviors. Parents are significant in ensuring their children behave in a responsible manner. FIPs entail providing intensive support to families while the costs of other antisocial behaviors. Effective implementation of FIPs program can increase rent collection by reducing the cases of rent arrear as well as improving the maintenance of properties (Chartered Institute of Housing 2014). Empty property problem Damping of empty properties all over the compound is another problem that most of the tenants face in their residential areas (Chenwi 2007).The research conducted by a group of officials in Silverview Housing Association confirmed most of the residential areas looks untidy and unworthy for a living being (Council 2009).Vandalism that was rampant in most of the residential areas was attributed the scattered empty properties in the regions (Flint, Jones, & Parr 2011). According to the information given by the Fareham council (2006), the existence of empty properties in most of the private leasing scheme could be attributed to many factors. In search of good living standards, the tenants of old fashioned housed vacates them and goes to houses that are self-contained and are well-conditioned. Some of the tenants also move in fear of anti-social behaviors of the landlords and unbearable rental conditions (Chenwi 2007). Most of the tenant like a situation whereby they have social freedom and there no disruption of any kind thus end up vacating properties that are strictly conditioned and lacks freedom. Even though, some of the homeowners were in the course of renovating their properties so that they could sell or let. Such owners are not capable of securing up-front capital they require to make their property habitable. Some landlords wanted to sell their properties, but the expectations about the value of the property in the future market withheld them. 13 % of the landlords who replied the survey stated that they were waiting for the time when the property prices will be much valuable in the market. Feedback from the letting managements and landlords showed that market for high-quality housing properties that are renovated and standardized (Halliday, 2001) Tenants complained differently about the effect of empty properties in their life. Social evils such vandalism, stealing, regular kidnapping, abductions and invasion by the wild animal were connected to the presence of the empty properties in the residential areas. Some empty property were old to the extent no one could predict the time they going to collapse thus posing a great danger to the lives of people living with them. Most of the thugs use these empty properties as their hideout after engaging in anti-social activities. The voids properties make the estate look so poor and disorganized (Manville et al. 2016). As a good practice, solving the problem of void properties can be through enactment vacant property registration ordinances requiring all landlords to register their property at a fee. The fee should escalate as long as the property remains vacant (Wilcox, Perry & Williams 2014). As the association learns of the the possibility of vacant and abandoned properties through the imperative registration, visual surveys, neighbor complaints, and property tax delinquency they should try to consider the tax liens and code enforcement to the owners take responsibility for their empty properties and revert them into proper use. Void properties can quickly fall into disrepair to the extent that they no longer comply with the good practice and codes. In areas where housing markets are weak such tha the aggregate supply exceeds the aggregate demands, the association should prioritize the housing quality. The housing revitalization strategies should aim at meeting the current market demand, however, where supply exceeds the demand, large-scale demolition and repurposing measures (Mullins, Reid & Walker 2001) can help control the number void properties. Recommendations and Conclusion Landlords should strive to fill their properties by finding the right households to secure their rental income and to meet the current housing needs of the society. Void homeowners should reflect the tenancy and estate management KLOE6; (Council, 2009) that was published in 2004. It highlights the various strategies that can be employed in empty property management (Douglas 2010). The act provides the homeowners with different tips on how to deal with the hard to let properties. It is important for all the homeowners to follow codes of good practice in planning and undertaking their activities such as repair and maintenance and booking of the repair appointment with the tenants. Repair contract appointment record should be maintained in a comprehensive manner that is understandable to the tenants (Jacobs et al. 2010). The repairs dates should be clearly enshrined in the notice to the tenants in the in the regular property circulars to avoid unnecessary disruption and harassment the tenants always undergo. To ensure efficiency in the repair and maintenance activities, the home owners should contract the qualified experts with appropriate building skills (Halliday 2001). A good schedule and plan should be drawn before the actual repairs are rolled out. Smart Plan for Improvement Below is the proposed smart plan of action the management should consider for improvement issues of concern in estate. It based on specific timescales within which each activity will carry out. Issue Action To Be Taken Timescale By Whom Tackling Anti-Social Behaviors Establishing Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) -Depending on the time this report has been prepared, it will realistic to set a time of 5 months for accomplishment of these projects Silverview Housing Association Tackling Antisocial Behaviors Mediation -Since this report is prepared in May, the management will have 28 working days-1 month to look for a trained mediation specialist for settling disputes Silverview Housing Association Tackling Ant-Social Behaviors Introductory tenancy and Agreement of Good Conduct -Since this report is prepared in May and due to urgency of Antisocial issues in the estate, the action will take effect after a month, that is from June 2016 Silverview Housing Association Repair and maintenance Involving tenants in decision making to convenient time and period repair and maintenance actions should conducted The action should begin within 28 days from the date of preparing this report, 3rd May Silverview Housing Association Reducing empty properties Rejuvenating and repairing vacated properties by painting, repairing broken electric lines, ceilings among others to improve their quality for rental purposes This should set off a year from the date of this report. Silverview Housing Association Reducing empty properties Demolition and Regeneration of inhabitable properties This report is prepared in May. Therefore it wills realistic if the association implements the action 6months from May. Silverview Housing Association Reducing repair and maintenance time Contracting experts and Keeping clear appointment records This should start in 28 days time from the date of report Silverview Housing Association References Audit Commission. (2004). Inspection report. New Charter Housing Trust Group. Barnes, H. Ruth. Housing & Health Uncovered. Shepherds Bush Housing Association, 2003. Bengtsson, B., 2000. Solving the Tenants? Dilemma: Collective Action and Norms of Cooperation in Housing. Housing, Theory and Society, 17(4), pp.175-187. Burney, E.(2005). Making People Behave: Anti-Social Behavior. Chenwi, L., 2007. The right to have admission to adequate housing: monitoring review. ESR Review: Monetary and Social Rights in South Africa,8(2), pp.21-25. Council, Fareham Borough. "Residents Satisfaction Survey." (2006). Council, W.B., 2009. Anti-social behavior policies and procedure. Cowan, D., Pantazis, C. and Gilroy, R., 2001. Social housing as crime control: an examination of the role of housing management in policing sex offenders. Social & Legal Studies, 10(4), pp.435-457. Douglas, J., 2010. Building surveys and reports.John Wiley & Sons. Flint, J., Jones, A. and Parr, S., 2011. An assessment of the sanction of Housing Benefit.Department for Work and Pensions. Halliday, S., 2001. Lessons from north of the border:brief commentary on the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. Journal of Housing Law, 4(6), pp.79-82. Hills, J., 2007. Ends and means: The future roles of social housing in England. Jacobs, K., Atkinson, Spinney, A., Colic Peisker,Berry, M. and Dalton, T., 2010. What future for public housing? A critical analysis. Joanna Jeffery and Richard Seager. 2010. “Tackling disability harassment” Manville, G., Greatbanks, R., Wainwright, T. and Broad, M., 2016. Visual performance management in housing associations: a crisis of legitimation or the shape of things to come?. Public Money & Management, 36(2), pp.105-112. Mullins, D., Reid, B. and Walker, R.M., 2001. Transformation and change in social housing: the case for an organizational perspective.Public Administration, 79(3), pp.599-623. Norris, M. and Shiels, P., 2004. Regular National Report on housing developments in European countries: Synthesis report. Olechnowicz, A., 1997. Working-class housing in England between the Wars: The Becontree Estate. Oxford University Press. Saugerties, L. and Clapham, D., 1999. Themes and contradictions in housing management: An analysis of bureaucratic discourse. Netherlands Journal of housing and the built environment, 14(3), pp.257-276. Wallace, A., 2010. Public attitudes to housing. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Wilcox, Perry, Jand Williams, P., 2014. UK housing review 2014.Coventry: Chartered Institute of Housing. Read More