Everyone has the right to a warm, secure and decent home. Yet many people in the UK are having their health put at risk due to living in a home with damp and mould.
The causes of damp and mould are often complex and tackling them successfully requires trust and understanding between social landlords and tenants. Without this, problems relating to damp and mould can quickly turn into formal complaints, which can escalate further to the Housing Ombudsman and even the RSH.
Key to a good relationship between landlord and tenant is understanding how well services are working from the tenant perspective, so that issues can be addressed quickly, and preventative actions put in place.
Here are 8 questions you need to answer to prevent damp and mould issues and create an effective strategy:
Do your tenants understand the health risks of damp and mould?
Are you treating damp and mould issues with urgency and sensitivity?
Do tenants feel comfortable reporting damp and mould without fear of repercussions?
Is your process for reporting damp and mould accessible and easy for tenants to understand and use?
Do tenants understand what to expect after they have made a damp and mould report?
Are tenants satisfied with how you respond to these reports?
After remedial work has taken place, are you following up with tenants three and six months later?
Are you effectively signposting tenants to resources that could help them make small changes to reduce damp and mould?
GovMetric can help you answer these questions. To find out more about how we are helping councils like Camden and other social landlords to improve their damp and mould services, contact us here.
Alix Cunnell is the Marketing Lead at GovMetric, home of the leading Citizen Experience Management solution for the public sector.
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