Access
Managers will ensure that:
4.00 Where an occupant has reported the need for a repair, access to their room for the purposes of maintenance is authorised unless the occupant provides specific instructions to the contrary. Records that their room has been entered, what work has been carried out and any further activities that are planned are also provided to the occupant;
4.01 Where access is required to an occupant’s room or communal areas for other purposes, each affected occupant receives appropriate notification of the date, time, estimated duration and purpose of the visit, except in the case of access needed in an emergency situation;
4.02 Where access is required for routine inspections of the accommodation, and where an exclusive right of occupation is included within the occupancy agreement, occupants will be given at least 24 hours’ notice of the date, time and purpose of the visit either in a notice or by direct correspondence;
4.03 Where regular and pre-planned access is required (i.e. to provide a periodic cleaning service) the details of the access and services to be provided are stated in the information provided when the occupancy agreement commences. If these arrangements are permanently rescheduled during the period of this agreement, then at least 24 hours’ notice of the changed arrangements is provided to occupants, either in a notice or by direct correspondence, before any work commences.
Repairs and Maintenance
Managers will ensure that:
4.04 As a general rule, developments should be maintained in accordance with any advisory standards of the local authority (available on its website) and in accordance with the management of HMO Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No 372), and should also ensure no category 1 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System arise from any deficiencies
4.05 The educational establishment has documented, and communicated to occupants at the beginning of the occupancy agreement, the system for reporting any repair/maintenance issues, including how complaints about outstanding or ineffective repairs can be made and to whom these should be addressed. In addition, the educational establishment will communicate with occupants during the process of undertaking any repairs that they have requested;
4.06 Maintenance activities and repairs meet, as a minimum, the following performance standards:
Priority One – Emergency Repairs – are completed as soon as possible or in any event within 24 hours of a report of a defect. These would be any repairs required to avoid a danger to health, a risk to the safety of occupants or serious damage to buildings or occupants’ belongings;
Priority Two – Urgent Repairs – are completed within five days of report of the defect. These would be any repairs which materially affect the comfort or convenience of the occupants;
Priority Three – Non-Urgent Repairs – are completed within 28 days of a report of a defect, unless the educational establishment has made a commitment to complete such repairs within a shorter timeframe; in which case they will be required to adhere to those. These would be any repairs not falling within the above categories;
4.07 Non-completion of reported repairs within the target timescales is recorded and appropriate action taken. In addition the satisfaction of occupants with the system of reporting and resolving repairs is regularly measured as described in section 7.0 below;
4.08 In the event that a dispute arises, the date that a repair is received by an appropriate person in a manner specified (which would include emails and texts) will be considered as the point at which the relevant repair timescales were triggered;
4.09 Maintenance and servicing programmes, such as gas appliance servicing, window and guttering cleaning, exterior and interior painting, are carried out in a planned and cyclical manner and with due regard to the convenience of occupants. Notice of such works will be provided in accordance with the access clauses 4.0 to 4.3 above;
4.10 Contractors are monitored to ensure that all redundant materials and debris are removed from site on completion of works within a reasonable time and that their personnel behave in a professional and courteous manner at all times.
Cleaning and Maintenance of Communal Areas
Managers will ensure that:
4.11 Appropriate details of the times for cleaning and maintaining communal areas are provided to occupants in writing, or displayed on appropriate notice boards within the residential development.
Furniture and Storage Space
Managers will ensure that:
4.12 All occupants are provided with appropriate facilities within their rooms (or in self-contained adjoining areas) including a bed, storage space for clothes and personal effects, curtains, blinds or other methods to provide adequate privacy and an area equipped for study purposes;
4.13 All furnishings and furniture provided as part of the occupancy agreement are clean and in reasonable condition at the commencement of the agreement and comply with the relevant fire safety legislative requirements relating to furniture and furnishings – Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 (as amended).
Kitchen Facilities
Managers will ensure that:
4.14 All occupants are provided with appropriate kitchen or pantry facilities which have been designed and installed having due regard for safety, industry practice and any Local Authority guidelines;
4.15 Food storage and preparation facilities comply (or a programme of work is planned to achieve compliance) with any levels of provision that have been laid down by the Local Authority for residential developments of this type.
Toilet and Personal Washing Facilities
Managers will ensure that:
4.16 All occupants are provided with appropriate WC, bath and/or shower facilities to comply (or a programme of work is planned to achieve compliance) with the levels of provision laid down by the Local Authority for residential developments of this type;
4.17 All en-suite facilities situated in occupants’ rooms are properly compartmentalised, with adequate provision of natural or mechanical ventilation.
Laundry Facilities
Managers will ensure that:
4.18 All occupants are provided with appropriate facilities for the washing and drying of clothes either within their accommodation, a shared laundrette with an appropriate ratio of machines to students to prevent excessive waiting times, or other suitable arrangements (such as a collection and delivery system for the cleaning of clothes)have been made;
4.19 Where a laundrette is provided as an amenity within a residential development, the educational establishment incorporates any requests for repair within their system defined in section 4.4 to 4.10 above;
4.20 The contact details of the organisation providing the services will be made available to occupants to enable them to report any “out of hours” problems directly.
Mail and Parcel Deliveries
Managers will ensure that:
4.21 Occupants will be made aware of the procedures for the distribution of incoming mail and where it can be collected from.
4.22 Where mail is not delivered through a letterbox into the room or flat of occupancy, arrangements will be made for the mail to be delivered into a conveniently located secure area, preferably accessible from within the building;
4.23 Where the manager is responsible for the distribution of mail it will be:
Delivered to occupants on all normal Monday to Friday working days;
Delivered within 24 hours of it arriving at the building; and
Delivered no later than 24 hours after the next normal working day when received over public holidays and weekends.
4.24 Occupants are notified of any mail forwarding arrangements not less than 14 days before the end of the occupancy agreement. Where the manager of a building does not agree to forward mail, this must be made clear to occupants in advance. Where no forwarding service is offered, managers must return undelivered mail to the sender with the notification ’gone away’ on each item;
4.25 Occupants are made aware when they sign their occupancy agreement of whether the building will take delivery of parcels and large items of mail, and store them and what the conditions of accepting them are. Where this is not the case, arrangements will be made for deliverers to enter the site to leave information about any non-delivery, so that occupants can either arrange a collection themselves or arrange a delivery when they can collect the item(s). Where parcels are accepted:
Managers must notify occupants within the timescales in clause 4.23 when they have an item available for collection;
Wherever possible, building managers should make provision for the temporary secure storage of a reasonable number of reasonably-sized parcels for collection by occupants.