Since 2005, the Council's homes have been managed and maintained by South Essex Homes.
South Essex Homes are responsible for the following housing management functions:
- granting new tenancies, successions, transfers and mutual exchanges
- advertising properties and conducting viewings
- asset management, responsive repairs and planned maintenance
- empty property management
- tenancy management
- estate management
- sheltered housing schemes
- tenant involvement
- management of leasehold properties and estate garages
- management of temporary accommodation for homeless applicants
- rent collection and the collection of other income such as service charges
The Council still manages the following housing functions:
- adaptations to our housing stock
- allocation of properties via a Choice Based Lettings system, under our allocations policy
Consumer standards
The Regulator of Social Housing makes sure social landlords:
- provide safe, good quality homes
- are accountable to their tenants
They have set out how they expect landlords to do this by producing four consumer standards. They are:
- The Safety and Quality Homes standard.
- The Transparency, Influence and Accountability standard.
- The Neighbourhood and Community standard.
- The Tenancy standard.
South Essex Homes manage our homes on our behalf. However, as the registered provider of social housing, the Council is responsible for making sure that the consumer standards are met.
The Council's retained housing functions, allocations and adaptations of our homes, are also included within the consumer standards.
The regulator assesses how well each landlord is complying with those standards. This is achieved through a system of inspections, which began in April 2024.
Our Director of Regeneration, Housing and Regulatory Services has overall responsibility for making sure the consumer standards are met.
Complaints
South Essex Homes welcomes feedback about the housing management service they provide on our behalf. If you want to make a complaint, you can do so by visiting their website.
South Essex Homes manages complaints in line with the Housing Ombudsman's Complaints Handling Code. If you have been through their complaints service and are unhappy with the response, you can also get support from the Housing Ombudsman.