Improving the Moving In Experience
At Tenant Panel meetings in October 2023 and January 2024, Seaside tenants raised issues that they had encountered when moving into a Seaside Homes property. Other tenants had raised similar issues via phone, email, and feedback survey. The Tenant Panel requested a tenant-led, in-depth review of the move-in process and this was agreed by Seaside staff.
So, on 9th April Seaside hosted an all-day, in-person event for involved tenants to review the process of moving-in to a Seaside Homes property. Seaside staff, Niamh and Jo, presented information about the current processes, policies and procedures that shape the moving-in experience and, over tea and biscuits, tenants led insightful discussions around the issues and possible solutions. The Deputy Manager of the Temporary Accommodation team at the Council joined the meeting in the afternoon and took questions and discussed the situation.
The day culminated in tenants agreeing a list of recommendations on how the move-in experience can be improved. The recommendations are:
- Create a clear and simple tenant-facing “Moving In Checklist” that provides a step-by-step of the key actions tenants need to take from the Viewing through to the Move-in, and includes the information the tenant needs in order to complete these steps.
- TA to advise tenants on the average length of time they could be staying in a property.
- Look into whether having British Gas as the standard provider at the start of a tenancy would simplify the process and if so, whether it would be possible to join the Council’s pilot scheme.
- Find out what scheme will be replacing the Council’s Local Discretionary Social Fund (which closed at the end of March 2024) and publicise the scheme to tenants.
- TA to maximise the time between the viewing and the move-in date, and consider on a case-by-case basis pushing back the move-in date in circumstances where the tenant is otherwise unable to arrange the move (and financial assistance with the move) in the allotted timeframe.
- Housing Officer to send a follow up email after the initial phone call to arrange a viewing. The email is to include the Offer Letter and Tenant Moving In Checklist.
- While tenants may not be assessed by their Homeless Prevention Officer as having a support need, there may be a particular issue that they need help with. Not everyone will need help with everything – it would be great if the Housing Officers could identify and flag up any potentially problematic areas at the beginning of the process. This could be in relation to language, literacy, mental health, whether the tenant owns a smart phone, and the amount of belongings, furniture and white goods they have. There may also be challenges that are property specific.
- TA to complete tenancy sign-up and give the tenant the key to the property at the Viewing, so they have more time to set up utilities and organise removals.
- TA to avoid viewings and sign ups on a Friday or over a Bank Holiday weekend (as this can result in a prolonged period without utilities as tenants are not able to find out their account number).
- Housing Officer to provide details of the utilities provider and meter readings to all tenants.
- At the Viewing, Housing Officer to show the location of the water stopcock and bins and cover the fire escape arrangements for all tenants.
- Tenants to be given a copy of any documents they have signed.
- Visiting Officer to develop a staff checklist to ensure that all concerns identified in this report are checked in on at the visit.
Seaside Homes have shared the recommendations with the Council’s Temporary Accommodation Team, who will consider the proposals and respond with an Action Plan of which recommendations they can take forward, how, and by what time, and provide reasons for any recommendations that they cannot implement.
Unfortunately, the Council are unable to provide a response to the recommendations at present because they currently do not have team Manager. Once the new Manager is in post, they will do a thorough review of the recommendations and send us their response. We will share their response with Seaside tenants, and with the Seaside Board of Trustees. We will then keep you updated about the progress of the actions.
A big thank you to all tenants who came along and contributed their thoughts and ideas.
An Update on the Communications Recommendations
Last year, our involved tenants attended an all-day event to explore how Seaside could improve communication with tenants, including analysing the website, handbook, newsletter, SMS service, and Facebook page. They made a list of recommendations and Seaside responded with an Action Plan, explaining which actions we would implement. We are pleased to report that we have now completed all of these actions. The last outstanding action was to offer the latest version of the Tenant Handbook to all tenants who have held a Seaside tenancy for more than 5 years. Everyone can also access the latest Tenant Handbook on our website. Thank you again to the tenants who took the time to help us improve our Communication!
Do you want to come to the next Tenant Panel?
We’d love to hear your insights. The Panel meetings are open to all current Seaside Homes tenants and are held in person, but can also be joined online on a video call. We will text tenants about upcoming meetings and post a blog on our News page with the details, so keep an eye out. We thank tenants who attend the full meeting with a £25 gift voucher as a token of our appreciation.
