Contact and Involvement
A. Contacting Us
The best way to contact us, including to report repairs, is by telephone on 0116 257 6800 or email: coops@pahousing.co.uk. If you want to meet us face-to-face you can book an appointment via the link at the top of our website: www.maynardcoop.org.uk. These ‘surgeries’ take place at 34 Cecil Road every Tuesdays 2-4.30pm.
You can also get in touch via our app, My PA, which enables you to easily access to your account from any internet-enabled device 24/7. Through the app you can view and make rent payment, set up Direct Debits, diagnose and report repairs, book appointments and report issues with grounds maintenance or communal cleaning as well as many more features.
Through the app you can also tell us about a repair, and if you use our picture-based reporting tool, you can identify the exact problem. Upload a photo of your own, and the system supplies all the information we need to make a quick repair. We’re more likely to fix it on our first visit if we know the details. We promise that your personal information is always kept safe and secure.
Our registered office is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm is:
Maynard Co-operative Housing Association
3 Bede Island Road
Leicester
LE2 7EA
Phone lines are open 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 12.00 noon on Saturdays
B. Customer Care
We aim, for you, to think the following about our service:
• You listen to us
• Our views shape your decisions
• You do what you say you will do
• If you get it wrong, you say sorry and fix it
• We love our homes and communities and are proud of where we live
• Our service charges are fair and accurate
• It’s easy to talk to you
• We understand our responsibilities
More specifically, we aim to:
• respond promptly to all communication
• communicate in clear, jargon-free language
• provide you with clear and relevant advice and information in response to any queries
• be polite and helpful and will always show identification
• treat you with respect
• ensure staff are properly trained
• provide interview facilities that allow access to all disabled customers and customers with pushchairs
• acknowledge emails within 24 hours, if we need to follow this with a more detailed response, we will contact you again within 10 working days or by a date we have agreed with you
• deal with telephone calls as promptly as possible and only transfer calls where necessary but if we have to, we will tell the other member of staff your name and why you are calling
Staff are always happy to discuss any query, problem or worry you may have about your tenancy or related matters. We will always treat you with respect, take action promptly where necessary and keep you informed of progress. We will also give you as much other help and advice as we can.
We will treat anything you say to us with discretion. All the information you give us is confidential. However, you should be aware that, by law, we have to share certain essential details with some other public organisations (for example local authorities, Benefits Agencies, Inland Revenue).
C. Consultation
Every tenant is automatically a member of the Co-op and shares ownership and responsibility for the management of our homes. Each year, at our Annual General Meeting our tenants elect the management committee which meets each month to plan and review strategy, development, finance and housing services. You are encouraged to join our management committee, attend meetings and take an active role in decision-making.
We believe in the right of our tenants and other residents to influence decisions about their
homes and the surrounding areas. We will inform you of any plans that affect you or your home, including any changes we want to make to the Tenancy Agreement, how we manage or provide our services to you and any modernisation or improvements we are planning for your home. You have a number of opportunities to find out about the activities and services we provide including:
• our newsletter which is issued several times a year
• our website and social media channels
• this Guide and leaflets on particular topics
• an Annual Report which tells you how well we are doing each year. This is sent out to every tenant once a year
• letters or fact sheets about particular plans we have or projects we are involved in.
We also carry out surveys from time to time to find out how well our customers think we are doing in various key areas of our service. These surveys may be online, telephone interviews or posted questionnaires. Sometimes they will be face-to-face interviews conducted by researchers. We welcome any constructive criticism or suggestion about our operations, services, organisation or way of working. If you would like to make a suggestion, please write to us or fill out one of our Complaints and Compliments forms which you can find on your Co-op’s website.
If you have an interest in making your community a better place or knowledge of housing management, development, finance or legal matters, and would be interested in joining our committee, please contact us. You do not need to be an expert, as we offer training and support. If you are not a tenant member, but have some relevant skills or knowledge and would like to work with us, please get in touch – we would be delighted to hear from you. If you are interested, please call us on 0116 2576800 or email coops@pahousing.co.uk to arrange a meeting.
We have clear policies and procedures which promote equal opportunity and respect for the needs of everyone in our community. We will act swiftly and firmly against any form of discrimination, for example on such grounds as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
D. Complaints
If you have a complaint, we want to know. We can then try to put it right. Your
comments and complaints help us to correct our mistakes and improve our service
to you. We would expect you to complain if we have:
- failed to fulfil our responsibilities
- carry out a policy
- provide a service
- failed to achieve good standards of service
- failed to take into account relevant information you have given us when coming to a decision
- acted towards you in an unfair way
There are multiple ways that you can make a complaint including by phone, letter, email, through the website or by speaking to someone who represents the Co-op, or by other means. We will maintain confidentiality in the handling of complaints.
In the first instance every appropriate effort will be made to resolve complaint straightaway and without a formal process. If we are unable to do this and the complaint becomes formal we will consider it as follows:
- Acknowledgement and logging
- Confirmation of the complaint
- Investigation
- Decision-making
Review – if the complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the investigation, they may request a review and which will be heard by the governing body of the co-op, someone independent of the complaint so far – offering the complainant and other parties to the complaint the opportunity to put forward their views. We have set timescales for each stage in the process:
At the end of the complaint investigation and at the end of the
review (if there is one) the co-op will write to the complainant to say:
- what the outcome of their complaint is
- the reasons why decisions have been made
- what offers the co-op is making to put things right
- what actions remain outstanding
- how the complainant can take the matter further if they are dissatisfied with the outcome or what the co-op is offering
- that the complainant may refer the complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service
Who else can I approach? You can get independent advice on your problem from your local Citizens Advice Bureau, Law Centre, local Voluntary Rights Centre, or a Solicitor. If you have a complaint against the Co-op you should go through our formal complaints process, you can also approach the Housing Ombudsman who may investigate the matter further: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk