Your home Your responsibility A guide to looking after your home
Your home - your responsibility 2020 Vision: The Road to Renewal Our 2020 Vision: The Road to Renewal is a focus on positive change that transforms our communities to mend broken Britain. Since March 2000 we have been building a team of people who, daily inspired in their work, seek consistently to give excellent service to our customers. This energises our residents, business partners and the wider community and helps us all find a sense of purpose, hope and fulfilment. As we change, transformation occurs and a brighter future becomes reality. Looking after your home Luminus is on the Road to Renewal. We call it our 2020 Vision. We want to make a difference in our communities and help to encourage residents to take more responsibility to improve their lives and those of others. The starting point for this is your home. We know that some tenants do not look after their homes very well. It costs a lot of money to repair a home that has been neglected. This standard sets out what you must do to look after your home. Having somewhere to live is a basic need for people. As a landlord we provide a home in reasonable condition with all the basic features such as a kitchen, bathroom and heating. We are also committed to carrying out all repairs which are our responsibility in a reasonable time period. It is the responsibility of the tenant to care for the home, keep it in reasonable decorative condition and clean and tidy. We realise that not everyone has the same standards or the same skills and we take that into account when deciding what to do. 2
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Your home - your responsibility What should you do? You are responsible for keeping your home in good decorative condition. This means you should decorate your home at least once every five years You should keep your home clean by regular hoovering and dusting. You should ensure that you keep your kitchen surfaces clean and uncluttered and that you also keep the bath and the toilet clean by using suitable cleaning materials. You should keep your home tidy and not have lots of items left lying on the floorfor example clothes or lots of books or newspapers. You should promptly dispose of waste products, such as left over food. Use the waste facilities provided by the local authority. You should not hoard items in your home. This can be very un-hygienic and create a risk of infestation or a fire risk. If you damage an item in the property you will be responsible for repairing it, either tell us about it or do the work yourself to a good standard. You need to take steps to avoid excessive condensation which can encourage mould growth. For example, make sure there is good circulation of air by keeping the trickle vents in your windows open, do not dry clothes indoors and make sure you wipe down and windows where there are signs of condensation. For more information see our leaflet. You should make sure that your pets are housetrained and are not allowed to foul inside your property or cause damage within your home. You are responsible for dealing with an infestation of rodents or insects. You can get help from the council, although there may be a charge for the service Luminus will deal with wasp or bee nests that are attached to the home. Always make sure that you get our permission if you want to carry out improvements to the home. We will want to check that any work you do meets with our standards. If you are having difficulty looking after your home you should speak to us before the situation gets worse. We will do everything we can to help you. 4
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Your home - your responsibility What will we do? Annual visit We will visit you at least once a year. We will check to make sure that your home is in good condition and that you are maintaining it well. If we think things should be improved we will tell you what needs to be done. We will talk to you about any specific problems and find out why these have occurred. We will try to support and help you to rectifiy any problems. We will encourage you to tackle the problem yourself. You will be given a clear timeframe to complete any works that we feel are necessary. We will then visit you again to see if the improvements have been made. If not we will continue to work with you until an improvement has been made and sustained. Other organisations Sometimes we may be able to refer you to another organisation who can help you. We will only do this if you give your permission or if we think it is necessary for your own safety and well-being. Re-decoration scheme We run a re-decoration scheme for tenants who are elderly or disabled, are on housing benefit and have no other family member or friend who can decorate for them. Under this scheme we decorate two rooms every five years. There is a long waiting list for the scheme. Enforcement It is a requirement of your tenancy agreement that you look after your home. If we find that you have not taken action to clean up or decorate your home and you do not have a good reason we may take legal action. This could be an injunction which would instruct you to take action or, as a last resort, action to evict you from your home. If we have to take legal action we will charge you our costs. The costs will be at least 200. 6
Your home - your responsibility Recharges We will recharge you the cost of any work we have to do to put right a problem with your home which has been caused by you, a member of your family or a visitor. We will also recharge you if we have to do work when you have left your home. Know how to decorate? We will provide training on basic decorating skills for new tenants who have not had a home before and for existing tenants who would benefit from such training. 7
The Road to Renewal Luminus are working towards our 2020 vision, we are keen to encourage you, our tenants to join us on the Road to Renewal. If you have some time on your hands and like decorating you can apply to join our bank of volunteers, to help others who may have difficulty in looking after their home independently. This is a great way of helping others in the local community and giving something back. For help to understand this standard please ring 01480 428707/8 If you have any comments or would like a large print or audio version, please contact the Communications Team on 01480 428707/8 or send an email to news@luminus.org.uk This document has been printed on Satimat Green. Satimat Green is a wood-free, two-sided, coated true silk paper and board containing 50 per cent recycled fibres and 50 per cent FSC-certified virgin fibres. Luminus Group Brook House Ouse Walk Huntingdon PE29 3QW T: 01480 428777 F: 01480 428555 info@luminus.org.uk www.luminus.org.uk