THE HYDE GROUP CENTRAL HOME OWNERSHIP PANEL MINUTES OF

the hyde group central home ownership panel minutes of meeting held on 13 september 2016 at park street from 6.00pm - 8.30pm 1.0

THE HYDE GROUP
CENTRAL HOME OWNERSHIP PANEL
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 13 SEPTEMBER 2016
AT PARK STREET FROM 6.00PM - 8.30PM
1.0 Welcome, Introductions and Apologies for absence
1.1 Introductions were made and apologies were given.
1.2 Some members have resigned from CHOP.
2. Election of Chair/Vice Chair
2.1 Expressions of interest were only received for the position of
Chair. The group voted to elect Chair and Vice Chair.
2.2 The Chair took over the meeting from immediate effect. She will be
given an induction meeting within the next two weeks. ACTION FOR STAFF
3 Declarations of Interest
3.1 No declarations of interest were received.
4 Minutes and Matters Arising
4.1 All approved the 17 May minutes.
4.2 The action list was discussed and updated. Outstanding actions to
be added to this meeting’s action list.
4.3 No matters arising.
5 Sinking Fund Review
5.1 SC gave the group an overview of the sinking funds review, taking
place in the Home Ownership Team currently. The Service Charge Team
now sits within the Finance directorate rather than the Home Ownership
Team.
5.2 Stock condition survey information will give us the 30 year plans
for works and costs. We will be looking at the costs and how much we
currently have in the sinking funds and how much more contribution is
needed.
5.3 We will need to consult with residents to ask whether they can
afford any higher contributions but ultimately Hyde will make the
decision.
5.4 SC showed information on a scheme. The data showed how much was in
the sinking fund at the moment and the expected future costs. This
information will show the predicted spends for the next 30 years. The
Finance Team has done modelling on inflationary costs also to try and
predict how much the cost will be in the future. VAT is also included
in the modelling.
5.5 The scheme shown was from an older persons’ leasehold block of
approximately 35 residents.
5.6 Hyde will be writing a document on where the costs come from. For
example, cyclical decorating, we have completed before, and therefore
we can predict the costs. Industry cost will be taken into account for
other works, like lift replacement. ACTION FOR STAFF
5.7 We are trying to make the contributions over the years as even as
possible, so that there are as little spikes in high cost as possible.
5.8 SC would like feedback on the above from CHOP at this meeting.
5.9 Members asked if they could review the information on the
lifecycle costings of each component. SC advised that we could include
this in the supporting documentation mentioned in 5.6.
5.10 CHOP suggested Hyde consider titles and less jargon.
5.11 Explanation of sinking funds and service charge differences was
requested. It was confirmed that reserves, provisions and sinking
funds are all the same and the Service charge will include a line for
sinking fund contribution, although some have two. Tenants don’t
contribute towards structure and exterior costs such as repairs ,
decorating, roofing, windows, communal heating etc. For example if
there is a mixed block of 10 in which 5 are tenants Hyde pay for the
share for the 5 tenants. Hyde do not contribute towards the sinking
funds annually but pay when works are carried out. The CHOP suggested
that an explanation needs to be provided to explain why there are two
provisions lines on the statement as it raises questions. At the
moment we aren’t able to join up due to the system, but will see if we
can when we move onto the new system. ACTION FOR STAFF
5.12 Consulting residents, Hyde is the trustee of the accounts and we
need to act in best interest of the building. Some leaseholders do not
want to pay more into the sinking funds as they may be moving soon or
may be elderly.
5.13 Buildings insurance will cover leaseholders for fire, flood,
theft and accidental damage. It does not cover usage or wear and tear.
If the roof is struck by lightning, insurance will cover. But tiles
falling off for day to day repair will be a maintenance issue.
5.14 CHOP agreed that they would like to spread out the costs
throughout the years rather than be hit with a big bill.
5.15 Elderly leasehold schemes have to put a percentage of their sale
price into the special reserve, it is a condition of the lease. This
contributes to the sinking fund.
5.16 Shared owners have to pay the same costs as the leaseholder, and
they are often on lower income. An option was suggested to maybe step
the funds up on year by year.
5.17 Hyde would like to be transparent about the costs coming up.
There will be no need to consult if costs are going down or staying
the same. Where there will be higher costs we will consult block by
block.
5.18 We aim to introduce the new funds for the 17/18 budgets. The data
will be ready in the next eight weeks. For those unaffected or
minimally affected, we will include a line within the documentation.
5.19 SC to report back in October how many schemes have significantly
underspend. ACTION FOR STAFF
5.20 Tenants sinking fund contributions are ring-fenced in trust on
the Hyde balance sheet but leaseholders sinking funds are kept in a
separate account.
5.21 Sinking funds were not consistently reviewed in the past and were
only increased in line with inflation.
5.22 SC advised that Hyde has moved to a “demand led” replacement
programme. If the roof is ok after 60 years we may not replace for
another 5 years. This is determined by Property Services. When works
have been completed, we will be in a better place to predict the next
lifecycle costs.
5.23 Sinking fund statements include the interest.
6 Enquiries and complaints re Service Charges
6.1 SC presented information on the complaints received from April –
July 2016. See appendix 1.
6.2 Explanation was given about the different stages of complaints and
the escalation process. Data was given to members on how many
complaints have been logged and their stage. Complaints that are sent
to the Executive Management Team are also logged.
6.3 Complaints include delays, staff complaints or poor quality of
service. However, if it is a legal dispute challenging the service
charge, this will not go through the complaints procedure.
6.4 It was asked what constitutes a complaint. Clarification was
given; the first time you contact us to alert us to the problem, it is
an enquiry and we have the opportunity to action the issue. A
discussion was had about the recent HRE inspection into complaints and
how they are logged at stage one.
6.5 There are a lot of complaints that are sent through to the Service
Charge team that should be sent to Resident Services for service
failure.
6.6 Data was given on specific complaints for the period ending in
July. It gave the group an insight into what complaints have been
coming in.
6.7 SC showed some statistics on how the Service Charge Team are
contacted and how many contacts are received in six months by
individual residents. Contact had been made to 14 Service Charge
officers and two managers. The enquiries by letter and email spiked
after the budgets were sent out in April. 27,500 letters were sent
out, so the enquiry level was relatively low. These figures are
tenants and homeowner contacts but we are unable to split the
information by tenure.
6.8 SC showed a comparison between Service Charge complaints and
complaints received by the Corporate Team. The complaints closed was
higher than the complaints received, this was explained to be because
of the backlog in complaints and the complicated repairs being shut
down recently.
6.9 Service charge complaints was requested as an agenda item at every
other meeting. ACTION FOR STAFF
6.10 Case studies of complaints to come to CHOP to look at lessons
learnt if it would be valuable to the Homeownership team to improve
their complaints service. ACTION FOR STAFF
7 Service Charge Project Update
7.1 SC showed the group the milestones for the Service Charge project
and explained the different sections, data, system, people and people,
BAU and dependencies.
7.2 We have nearly finished analyzing all of our lease agreements and
cleansing the data. Data is ready to go live into the new test system
at the end of September. NG stands for Northgate – the name of the
system. The system set up will be completed by the end of December.
7.3 Training will happen predominantly during quarter three and will
continue if needed up until March 2017 before go live.
7.4 It has been difficult on stay on track with the timelines on the
project, but it can only be implemented once a year in April, so it is
very important that we get it right before then. We currently
undertake 27,500 service charge calculations on spreadsheets, which
can be prone to formula errors.
8 Home Ownership Team service improvement update
8.1 Improvement plans for the Home Ownership Team and another for the
Service Charge Team were shown to the group and key milestones
discussed. Please see appendix 2 and 3.
8.2 One key feature was that we would like more residents to become
digital as a trend in complaints showed people complained about
waiting in telephone queues.
8.3 It was suggested not to remove the phone number from the Service
Improvement Plan (SIP). ACTION FOR STAFF
8.4 The Allpay system was advised to be complicated and direct debit
was preferred to pay service charges. The group would like
clarification of how the AllPay system works for Hyde and why
leaseholders receive information on it. ACTION FOR STAFF
8.5 Clarification required of purchase of freehold on Bermondsey Spa,
as per the improvement plan. ACTION FOR STAFF
8.6 Administration fees will be relooked at and benchmarked across
other organisations.
8.7 The Service Charge Team improvement plan was shown to the group.
The group were aware of many of the items on the SIP
8.8 Sinking Charge Policy to be shared with CHOP during development.
ACTION FOR STAFF
8.9 A discussion was had about the issues from managing agent sites
and how the Service Charge Team will improve the information held in
our system. There will also be a process drafted for service failure
of the managing agents.
8.10 A new process has been drafted and completed for new
developments, because when a new resident purchases, their service
charges increase significantly after purchase. The new process means
that service charge projections will be done before planning in future
to try and ensure more accuracy.
8.11 New version of the service charge statement was shown to the
group for their thoughts. Please see appendix 4.
8.12 Brought forward balance may be on the tenant statement but not on
the homeowner statement. Feedback was that it was much clearer.
Suggestion to put onto the OAK for feedback. ACTION FOR STAFF
8.13 It was preferred that it was on more than one page but have all
the data, rather than try and squeeze on one page. Better to be
transparent in costings.
8.14 In the booklet a Q&A should be added, “Why are my estate costs
different from my block costs?” for clarification and maybe include an
example. I.e. one neighbor may have access to communal areas and
another does not. ACTION FOR STAFF
8.15 The booklet will be put on the OAK in the next few months for
consultation. ACTION FOR STAFF
8.16 Some blocks do not get a budget and we have to charge them on
actual cost. It is a condition of their lease but there are not many
like this. Budget comes out with your rent increase letter in
February.
9 Merger update
9.1 SC updated the group on the merger cancellation.
https://www.hyde-housing.co.uk/news-events/news/corporate-and-financial/lq-and-the-hyde-group-have-mutually-agreed-to-end-plans-to-merge/
10 Forward Plan
10.1 Consultation on the budget statement for next meeting.
10.2 Objective setting at the next meeting and action monitoring.
10.3 Helen Carter to update on the Home Ownership Team review.
11 AOB
11.1 Members wanted to discuss the categorisation of the agenda items,
i.e. discussion, decision and information only.
Feedback/recommendations to be added. It was agreed that papers,
including presentations should be posted a week in advance, if
recommendations or feedback are required. ACTION FOR STAFF
Meeting closed at 8.33pm
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