How we work with you - our Customer Charter

We’ll make sure you have a good quality home and community to thrive in. To do this, we’ll:

• Work closely with developers to monitor the building of new homes
• Thoroughly check locations and environments are suitable for you to live in
• Preview the home with you, demonstrating fixtures and fittings
• Work with our customers to support community-building events and initiatives
• Regularly clean and maintain communal areas and external spaces
• Fully investigate any reports around community safety
• Work in partnership with the police, local authorities and other partner agencies whenever needed.

We’ll make sure you are safe and secure in your own home. To do this, we’ll:

• Make sure all our homes meet industry standards for health and safety and quality
• Communicate clearly with you around dealing with defects or repairs
• Provide clear plans and actions so you know what to do in the event of a fire
• Support you in keeping your home clear from damp and mould
• Carry out maintenance and safety testing in homes and communal areas (where it is our responsibility)
• Clearly explain your responsibilities regarding your home
• Maintain all communal spaces to a good standard
• Provide emergency support 24 hours a day, every day of the year
• Provide support when needed through our Community Support Team.

We’ll always treat you with respect, regardless of the situation. To do this, we’ll:

• Respond to any questions quickly and politely
• Look to resolve issues as soon as possible, within our service level agreement requirements. If we need more time, we’ll keep you updated
• Listen carefully to you to understand your needs and make it easy to request reasonable adjustments to how we do things
• Give you the right information to make informed decisions
• Explain from the beginning what we can and can’t do
• Let you know when things will be done and keep you updated if there are issues or changes
• Respect your privacy and never make judgements when discussing your finances or lifestyle
• Protect your personal data and information and let you know how we use it.
• Make sure you can access all our services, regardless of your needs.

We’ll listen carefully to anything you have to share with us and make sure you always feel heard. To do this, we’ll:

• Always be there for you to ask questions and raise issues, even when we’re asleep – through your My Sage Home online account
• Give you lots of chances to feedback with customer satisfaction surveys, My Sage Home, our Customer Scrutiny Panel and related customer insight groups
• Offer documents in accessible formats including braille, large print and various languages
• Make sure we get feedback from a diverse range of viewpoints by using different contact methods
• Keep you updated on feedback from customers and the changes we’ve made to improve the way we do things.

We’ll hold ourselves accountable and let you know how we perform. To do this, we’ll:

• Meet our targets for responding to you and fixing things:
  -  Acknowledging receipt of your enquiry within 24 hours, and informing you of the next steps
  - Making emergency repairs within 24 hours
  - Completing routine repairs within 20 working days
•  Update you on our performance in our service areas and how we spend our money, including publishing our results in our Customer Annual Report
•  Encourage a learning environment in our organisation, where we share openly when things go wrong, always look to improve and showcase best practice
•  Ask for honest feedback and use it to learn lessons and improve our services.
  
  
  

We’ll deal with any complaints efficiently and fairly. To do this, we’ll:

• Give you an accessible complaints process with clear timelines
• Help you if you need assistance with making a complaint
• Provide independent investigations into your complaints, providing thorough reports for you and our staff
• Make decisions after considering your needs and feedback
• Resolve the matter as soon as possible, aiming for first point of contact resolution
• Be accountable and apologise when we’re at fault
• Keep any promises we make and update you on their progress
• Learn from the things we get wrong to improve our services

You can find our complaints policy, and other key policies here.

To do this we'll:

•  Clearly explain the tenancy or Shared Ownership process when you first enquire
•  Support and guide you through the process of applying for your home
•  Show you your home’s layout and specification and give any other details to help you make informed decisions
•  Welcome you to your new home on your first day with a digital copy of the welcome pack and home user guide
•  Provide you with your own My Sage Home online account so you can access all the information you need whenever it suits you
•  Contact you after you move in to make sure you’re happy with everything
•  Promote options for Shared Ownership customers to increase the share of their home (called Staircasing).