BACKGROUND INFORMATION VARIOUS MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS

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1 INTRODUCTION Empowering People Inspiring Communities Ltd (EPIC) is seeking a Contractor or Contractors for their Responsive Repairs, Void Property Repairs, Out of Hours Repairs, Gas Servicing and Maintenance, Renovations to Property Acquisitions and Garden Maintenance contracts. Arrangements are to commence April 2015 for 2 years with a possible extension of a further year. This document is intended to provide potential providers with sufficient information to determine if they wish to be considered for one or more of these contracts. BACKGROUND INFORMATION EPIC was formed in 1998, under the name Bentilee Community Housing Ltd, to take on the ownership and management of the flats in the Bentilee area of Stokeon-Trent, we are a not-for-profit organisation, and in 2007 we changed our name and became a registered charity. We currently manage 1,004 properties (November 2014), which are primarily located in Bentilee, the remainder across Stoke On Trent and Newcastle under Lyme. We are a provider of social housing and as such are regulated by the Homes and Communities Agency who are responsible for regulating social landlords in England. Our growth strategy involves acquiring 2 and 3 bedroom housing throughout North Staffordshire. Our Purpose Providing great quality housing at below market rents. Our Vision To empower our people, provide excellent services and offer further housing choices through acquisitions and innovative tenure offerings. Our Mission To provide excellent housing at below market rents for people on low incomes. We recognise our customers as individuals and as members of our communities. We work in a highly ethical manner to promote local regeneration and stable communities. We cherish our people our properties and our reputation. Address EPIC s Head Office is at Ubberley Road, Bentilee, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST2 0EF. 1

2 BACKGROUND ON PROPOSED CONTRACTS SCOPE OF WORKS The works comprise the following; Responsive repairs (excluding to the heating system), this includes emergency call out work during normal working hours Emergency repairs outside of office hours Void property repairs Gas servicing and the maintenance of the heating system Garden maintenance (including grass cutting to the gardens of all flats) Repairs and renovation works to houses purchased on the open market Full details of the contracts are available through the EPIC website The anticipated values per year of the contracts are; Responsive repairs - 170k Out of hours repairs 12k Void property repairs - 225k Gas servicing and maintenance 80k Garden maintenance - 100k Renovation works to our property acquisitions - 200k CURRENT CONTRACTORS The contracts are currently undertaken by a variety of contractors and EPIC expect Transfer of Undertakings (Protection Of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) to apply. CONTRACT The form of the contracts will be standard JCT works contract, to be confirmed. The contract will initially be let for a period of 2 years, which may be extended by EPIC for a further year. PROGRAMME The following key activities and milestones are noted with anticipated durations and dates; Activity Date Issue tender documentation 24 th December 2014 Tender return date 30 th January 2015 Tender evaluation 30 th January 2015 Complete contract discussions and sign contracts 10 th February 2015 Commencement of Term Programme 01 st April

3 TENDER EVALUATION Tender Submissions EPIC will endeavour to deal with queries that the tenderer may have during the tender period. The tenderer should be aware that EPIC will circulate to all tenderers the content of any queries raised and the answers given if it is felt clarification would be of benefit to all tenderers. If any tenderer requires any further information or wishes to raise any query, they should contact Hadrian Noble at EPIC, on Tel: (01782) , or (preferred contact method) at any time up to Friday 23 rd January All information supplied by EPIC in connection with this tender process shall be treated as confidential by tenderers except where such information is disclosed for the purposes of obtaining commitments from proposed specialist sub-consultants or sub-contractors or suppliers and other information required to be submitted with the Form of Tender. All information provided by or on behalf of EPIC must be treated as private and confidential and tenderers shall not, without the prior written consent of EPIC, at any time, make use of such information for its own purposes or disclose such information to any person (except as may be required by law or where such information is disclosed with the prior written agreement of EPIC.) No unauthorised alteration or addition (save for the inclusion of the relevant information) should be made to the Form of Tender or any other part of the documents. Tenders must not be qualified in any way, and must be submitted strictly in accordance with the instructions provided. Tenders must not be accompanied by any covering letter or any statement that could be construed as rendering a tender equivocal and/or placing it on a different footing from other tenders. To be considered, tenders must use the Tender Return Envelope provided and be:- Received by registered post, recorded delivery or delivered by hand to Ubberley Road, Bentilee, Stoke on Trent, ST2 0EF by no later than noon on Friday 23 rd January Tenders may be delivered by hand only during normal working hours Monday to Thursday 9.00am to 5.00pm, Friday 9.00am to 4.00pm and must be taken to the address set out above, where a signed receipt must be obtained. Any tenders, or other supporting documents received after this date and time will not be considered for acceptance by EPIC. The tenders and all supporting documents shall be completed in black ink or type. The tenders must be signed; Where the tenderer is a partnership, by all the partners or by at least two (2) partners signing under a power of attorney on behalf of the other partners, a copy of which is to be provided with the Tender; 3

4 Where the tenderer is a company, by two (2) directors, or by a director and the company secretary, such persons being duly authorised for that purpose. Tenderers shall produce forthwith upon request by EPIC documentary evidence of any authorisation referred to in the Instructions above. Sealed in a single plain sealed package using the labels provided by EPIC attached prominently to the outside of the package. The package, envelope, or any franking thereon, must not bear the marks, sign or reference which might indicate the identity of the tenderer. EPIC shall not be bound to accept any tender and reserves the right at its absolute discretion to accept or not accept any tender submitted. EPIC will base the award on the tenderer who has submitted the lowest price, whilst also achieving the minimum quality threshold as set out in the Quality Assessment Questionnaire. The tender evaluation criteria for each contract are included in the individual tender documents. Tenderers should note that notwithstanding the order of importance in the list above, tenders failing to meet minimum compliance requirements will be rejected on those grounds. EPIC will not recompense the tendering contractors for their cost of tendering. Visits to reference sites There is to be provision for representatives of EPIC to select and visit tenderers reference sites to assess the performance of tenderers on existing contracts and to talk with tenants and other key stakeholders. These may, or may not, be taken up. References EPIC may at its discretion take up references on tenderers provided otherwise by tenderers with their submission. Interview/selection process The contractor who has provided the lowest rates will be invited for interview to qualify their submission. If this is successful the contract would be awarded, if unsuccessful then the contractor who has provided the next lowest rates are to be invited. APPOINTMENT Once there is a clear understanding between both parties regarding the scope of the works and the contractors ability to deliver to the required performance levels a formal contract would be agreed. 4

5 INFORMATION ON THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTS Provided below are brief descriptions of the works to be completed for each contract. All submissions are to allow for completing works to any of EPICs properties irrespective of location, unless indicated in the tender package. RESPONSIVE REPAIRS The repairs function focuses on the customer, all calls are taken at the EPIC office by EPIC; appointments are agreed at this first point of call with the customer and an electronic diary entry created which is able to be viewed by the contractor. An official order is sent electronically confirming all details to the contractor who is to attend at the agreed date and time. Appointments are generally agreed within 2-5 working days of the order to ease the flow of works. There are 2 categories Emergency and Non-Emergency repairs. Emergency repairs are to be attended to within 2 hours. Customers can request a confirmed time for the appointment and the contractor is to attend at this time. Where there is no alternative; appointments must be accommodated for 5.00pm on a weekday or on a Saturday morning. The time slots are; A.M am to 1.00 pm P.M. midday to 4.00 pm All day when access to the home is not required 8.00 am to 5.00 p.m. VOID PROPERTY REPAIRS The process for undertaking work to void properties shall commence at the point where EPIC advises that keys are available for collection. From this point: The contractor shall enter upon the property and complete a Property Health and Safety Assessment and a Schedule of Works required to bring the property up to the EPIC Lettable Standard. The schedule shall be submitted to EPIC within 2 working days. Approval shall be given to proceed with the agreed works and from this point the Service Provider shall undertake the works promptly. Properties with only minor repairs are to be returned within 5 working days and those which require a major component are to be returned within 15 working days. OUT OF HOURS The contractor will accept calls from EPIC tenants outside of office hours, these being 9.00am 5.00pm Monday to Thursday and 9.00am-4.00pm Friday and arrange to attend emergency repairs within 2 hours. Emergency repairs are classified as those which could pose a threat to health or seriously damage the property if not addressed. GAS SERVICING AND MAINTENANCE The contractor shall carry out a Landlords Gas Safety Record inspection in accordance with the attached specification. The scope of the contract includes the completion of any repairs to the gas installation during office hours. The classification of repairs is provided against each repair in the attached Schedule of Rates. Those classed as an emergency are required to be attended within 2 hours and permanently repaired within 24 hours, non-emergency jobs are to be attended as requested by the customer. 5

6 GARDEN MAINTENANCE EPIC are responsible for maintaining the communal gardens to the blocks of flats and require a contractor to complete the works to the attached schedule, all works are located in Bentilee. PROPERTY ACQUISTIONS The growth strategy of EPIC involves the acquisition of properties through the open market. Contractor(s) are required to complete renovation works so that properties meet our Lettable Standard - Property Acquisition. It is forecast that we will acquire a minimum of 45 properties over the next 3 year period; however, numbers may be significantly higher. There is no guarantee on either the number of properties to be refurbished or the regularity of any refurbishment work within the contract period. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS A suite of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) will be agreed for all the services prior to the award of the contract. Failure to achieve these may lead to the termination of the contract. EPIC will work with each contractor to improve performance and achieve the agreed KPIs. 6