Our Service Offer

Watmos is a resident led organisation. Our Resident Voice network provides opportunities for residents to share their expertise and experiences to help improve the services we deliver in homes and neighbourhoods.

Residents form a strong foundation in our governance structure with a Residents Committee reporting through to the Board with 3 resident board members.

Resident Voice opportunities include:

• Taking part in surveys
• Focus groups
• Joining our communications and policy review groups
• Scrutinising service delivery and performance
• Becoming an estate or block ambassador
• Taking part in estate inspections
• Joining your local based resident group  

You can find out more here: Resident Voice | WATMOS

We aim to provide warm, dry, safe homes that are in good repair.

We complete annual safety checks in your home and have Building Safety officers working across our estates to ensure all homes meet the required regulations for example in relation to gas and fire safety.

We’ll visit you at home at least once every 3 years to check on your well-being and that there are no issues with your tenancy or your home.

Repairs

When repairs are needed, we want to get the job done quickly, without any fuss and at your convenience, when possible. You can find details about how to contact us to report a repair here: Reporting a Repair

When you tell us about a repair we will:

• Let you know immediately if the repair is our responsibility or yours
• Report this to the appropriate contractor and let you know the next steps, with a timescale for completing the work
• Keep you informed about your repair and update you if further works are required
• Contact you when the repair is complete make sure you’re happy

Our timescales for repairs are:

Emergency within 24 hours — for repairs which affect the safety or security of your home Urgent within 5 working days — for repairs that need repairing quickly, like a minor leak but are not an emergency Routine within 25 working days — for all other non-urgent repairs, like kitchen unit repairs or estate repairs You can find more information here Reporting a Repair

 

Other types of repairs

We can help with  aids and adaptations to your home. Please speak to your Tenancy officer to find out more. You can find our policy here

Before completing planned works or complex repairs we’ll consult with you   about what we’re planning to do and let you know when it will be done and how long it will take.

We also have specialist contractors for gas, asbestos and fire safety repairs. These contractors will usually make appointments with you directly.

At Watmos, we are committed to empowering residents who live in our communities. We have locally based support staff, including caretakers, gardeners, cleaners and handypeople to deliver services where you need them. Our tenancy teams are close by and fully connected to residents locally.

All neighbourhoods have community spaces where residents can meet, usually managed by resident groups. Watmos provides resources to manage these safely and to support engagement.

Keeping neighbourhoods clean and safe

We do this by:

• Completing regular inspections of estates and blocks . We encourage residents to join us on local inspections as Estate and B lock Ambassador s  

• Carrying out repairs in shared areas within our published timescales

• Working closely with local partners, like safer neighbourhood’s teams and antisocial behaviour specialists to ensure all residents can appreciate their home and community safely.  

• Ensuring our housing teams are trained and able to respond to reports of anti-social behav iour, domestic abuse and hate crimes with empathy and with in published timescales .  

• Ensuring our services for communal areas provide best value, balancing cost with quality and service delivery .  

• Seeking  par tners to work with to enhance the economic and social well being of our residents and our communities.

If you are a new tenant, you will usually be given a Starter tenancy and we will support you to settle in. Your tenancy will convert to an Assured tenancy after a year unless there are unresolved concerns.

For existing tenants, the tenancy you have will depend on when you signed your first tenancy agreement. You can find further information in our Tenancy and Tenancy Management policies or by speaking to your Tenancy Officer.

If you are unhappy with a decision, we make about lettings, or your tenancy type you can appeal by using our Complaints process – see below for further details.

Watmos rents

Our rents are set annually in line with Government guidelines. We offer easy ways to pay rent and service charges and expect payments to be made in advance weekly or monthly. You can find more information here: Rent | WATMOS

Managing your tenancy or lease

Our specialist housing teams provide help and support to tenants and leaseholders to live well and sustain their tenancy or lease.

To help you with this we aim to:

• Respond in full to any tenancy or lease query within 10 days and let you know when the issue will be resolved.   

• Let you know if you’ve breached the term of your tenancy or lease and help you resolve the issue before considering legal action.  

• Provide debt and welfare benefit advice or sign post you to support services.  

• Ensure service costs are transparent, offer value for money and deliver the services you need.  

• Provide specialist support and safeguarding services to help you live well , safely and independent ly  

We want to hear how we’re doing and welcome compliments, suggestions and complaints. When things will go wrong, we aim to put things right as soon as we can.

We comply with the Ombudsman’s complaint handling code of practice and regularly review complaints to look for ways to improve our service.  

When things go wrong we will always:

• Try to resolve your issue when you contact us, but if you want to make a complaint you can do this by either speaking  to any member of staff, writing to or emailing us or completing a form on our website Comment & Complaint Form | WATMOS

• Acknowledge receipt of the complaint and start investigations early

• Keep residents informed of progress including timescales

• Provide a response within the agreed timescales and be sure to follow through with any outstanding actions