Our new and improved Lettable Standards
We want to tell you about our new Lettable Standard. This standard covers three main areas and explains the standard you can expect to receive your property, the standard you are expected to maintain throughout your tenancy and the standard your home should be returned to us, should you choose to leave.
Pre-covid we spoke to six new tenants about their experiences of getting a home with us, used the feedback from a recent Resident Scrutiny Panel investigation into empty homes and held discussions with our Tenant Inspectors and front line colleagues in our Voids and Lettings teams to inform our new Lettable standard.
We pulled the feedback together and presented a first draft to our colleagues and tenants at large for feedback. All this feedback was considered and some used to inform the final version of the Lettable Standard that was approved by our recognised tenant body, Community Voice.
The key changes to the Lettable Standard are:
- Having a clear and specific section in the document for each part of the home e.g. kitchen, bathroom
- Including safety information such as gas and electric checks that wasn’t in the Lettable Standard before
- Making sure a tenant knows what to expect once they have signed their tenancy agreement – for example, ‘you will receive three keys for each access door when you sign for the tenancy’.
The Lettable standard is split into three sections; clean, safe and secure;
Clean talks about things inside your home, such as interior decoration, radiators/storage heaters, kitchens, bathrooms, cleaning/clearance and also external, such as outbuildings.
Safe talks about gas/electric safety checks, EPC, heating/hot water, smoke/carbon monoxide alarms. Lighting, floors, stairs and external, such as gardens and paths.
Secure talks about windows, doors and fencing.
To hear more about the Lettable Standard and what it means, watch this video.