Lettable standards policy review

What did we ask?

We invited 6 new customers to talk to us about their experiences with moving into their new property. We wanted to find out what is important to customers to help us update our Lettable Standards policy. This is the standard we set when a home becomes empty to get it up to scratch for a new tenant.

What did our customers say?

Our customers came up with a number of things they would have liked to have seen differently, which can be summarised in the following four points:

• A smoother aids and adaptations process for people with disabilities moving into a new home
• More information about how things work in the home
• A clearer policy on carpets and flooring with support to help those who are struggling financially
• Better checks before or during the property handover.

What did we do next?

At the time of writing, we have several plans in place to improve things based on our customer's feedback. Both from this review and the satisfaction data we collect from surveying new customers when they join us. Here are some of the things we plan to do:

• Actively improve our working relationship with the occupational therapists at the council to make the process of adapting a property much more efficient
• Work on signposting new customers to useful information about lots of DIY things around the home. We're also working on an updated 'tenants handbook'.
• Look at the timing and content of the 'settling in' visits we make to new customers. See if it would be beneficial to bring these forward and talk more about technical aspects of the home and support needed.
• Approach local companies to see if we can negotiate a discount on flooring for our customers.
• Improve the efficiency of repairs left over from when the property was empty so that customers are not left waiting in the queue for responsive repairs.

We are now working on updating the policy and this will soon be viewable on our website.

We'd like to thank all the customers who volunteered their time with us to share their views on how we can improve our Lettable Standards.

Feedback about the process

Really easy to work with you and the host was open and friendly which was nice.

I think it was great for Selwood to gain knowledge from their customers it's made me really feel listened to.