KCHA - Kingston Churches Housing Association - Serving Kingston

Current Student Vacancies

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 03:10:51 -0800

Rooms in the following properties are vacant and available for letting as at June 2008:

No vacancies

Performance Information

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:38:57 -0800

For information on how we performed in 2007 see our Annual Report 2007.

We are currently working on posting more recent information on this website.

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 08:32:26 -0800

Click the attachment below to download the latest available Newsletter. (Depending on your system, this may take some time. Please be patient.)

Customer Service Standards

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 07:10:05 -0800

KCHA aims to provide you with the best possible service at all times. To help us achieve consistently high standards, we have set ourselves performance targets in key areas.

These are the main standards you can expect from us.

If you telephone us:

· We hope you will never have to wait for more than 5 rings before being answered.

· We will deal with your calls in a polite, friendly and professional way.

· We will always identify ourselves so that you know who you are talking to.

· We will ensure that you are transferred to the person you wish to speak to. If they are not available a message will be passed to the person upon their return or, if appropriate, an appointment will be made for you.

· When the office is closed there will be an answer-phone on to take messages. We will respond to these within one working day.

If you write to us:

· We will reply to all letters within 5 working days.

· We will reply to all emails within 3 working days.

· We will write in plain language.

· When we cannot give you an answer immediately, we will give you a reason for the delay, and a time scale for when you can expect an answer or decision.

If you visit this office:

· We will ensure you are seen by someone as soon as possible.

· If the person you wish to see is not available, an appointment will be made for you.

· We will display useful, up to date information about our activities and events, other housing information and office opening times.

If we visit your home:

· We will always give you the option of a home visit if this is more convenient for you.

· We will make every effort to keep appointments. Where this is not possible we will always let you know as far in advance as possible.

· We will behave professionally and courteously at all times and always treat you, other household members, and your possessions with respect.

Equality and Diversity:

· We will provide services that are equally accessible to all our customers, and that are fair and free from discrimination.

· We will try to provide information about our services in the best possible format for you, including large print and audio tape.

· We will try to arrange for an interpreter to be available if you need one.

· We will always act fairly when we deal with you, and treat your personal details with confidentiality.

· You have the right to see personal information that we hold about you.

If we receive a complaint:

· We will explain our formal complaints procedure which has clear time-scales for responding.

· We will aim to put your problem right as soon as possible.

· We will keep you informed at all times.

· We will apologise if your complaint is upheld.

· We will aim to learn from our mistakes so they don’t happen again.

If you report a repair:

· We will tell you what the timescale is for completing your repair.

· We will aim to complete emergency repairs within 24 hours and urgent repairs within 5 working days.

· We will send you a copy of the repair order.

· We will offer an out of hours repairs service for emergencies.

· We will inspect 10% of all repairs to check that the work has been done to a good standard.

Decent Homes and planned maintenance:

· We have set ourselves the target that all our homes should at the least meet the government’s Decent Homes Standard.

· This means that they should be in a reasonable state of repair, have reasonably modern facilities and services, and provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.

· We will carry out planned repairs to properties and consult with tenants about such work.

· We will inform you in advance of planned improvements to your home (e.g. new kitchens) and give you a choice of style, colour and layout where appropriate.

· For your safety we will carry out an annual gas safety check and quarterly maintenance on fire safety equipment.

Keeping you informed and involved:

· We will produce documents that are clear and easy to understand.

· We will identify the best way of hearing your views, e.g. surveys, issue based meetings

· We will consult with you and take your views into account on the services we provide.

· We will keep in contact with you through quarterly newsletters, and an annual report, where we will tell you how we are performing against our standards.

· We will offer all necessary support to tenants wishing to form a Tenants Group or Association

· We will publicise the date of our Annual General Meeting to which you are all invited and encouraged to attend.

Rents and rent collection:

· We will ensure that rent payments are recorded accurately and any queries dealt with within 5 working days.

· We will supply you with rent statements on a quarterly basis.

· We will calculate your rent according to government requirements.

· We will give you the required notice when your rent and/or service charges increase.

· We will offer you a range of ways to pay your rent.

· We will give you help filling out housing benefit forms.

· We will deal with tenants in rent arrears firmly and fairly.

· We will give you advice about managing your rent account if you do fall behind with your rent.

· We will take all reasonable steps, including legal action if necessary, to collect any rent owed to us.

If you suffer anti-social behaviour, harassment or nuisance:

· We will investigate all reports of anti-social behaviour, harassment or nuisance promptly, fairly and sensitively, within published timescales.

· We will clearly explain any limitations we might have when dealing with anti-social behaviour.

· We will treat any report of racial harassment as a serious matter.

· We will take prompt and appropriate action against any tenant whose behaviour adversely and unreasonably affects the quality of your life or your home.

· We will offer mediation whenever this may be appropriate or useful and if agreed by both parties involved.

· We will consider legal action against any tenant who continues to behave in an anti-social way.

· We will work with tenants, voluntary agencies, the police, local authorities and community groups to combat anti-social behaviour.

· We will work with all parties to try to resolve the problem and explain clearly what is happening at each stage.

· We will respect all tenants’ rights and take full account of their circumstances, but be firm in dealing with all tenancy matters.

· We will remove any racist or offensive graffiti within one working day of being reported and all other graffiti within 10 days of being reported. We will repair any vandalism damage to your property as a priority.

In return we will expect you to:

· Be polite and courteous to our staff and contractors at all times.

· Identify yourself and provide your name and address and any contact details.

· Give us full details of any complaint or concern, provide us with the information we need to be able to assist you and explain how you would like it to be resolved.

· Update us on any changes in your circumstances to ensure that our information is accurate and up-to-date.

· Always try to make an appointment to see us and let us know if you are unable to keep an appointment with us.

· Contact us if you do not understand any information we send to you.

· Pay your rent promptly.

· Keep to the terms of your tenancy agreement at all times.

We will not continue to deal with any tenants who are, or become, violent and aggressive to staff or our contractors, or who are persistently rude, threatening or aggressive, or who use racist, sexist or homophobic language. Threats made towards staff will be reported to the Police and legal action taken if necessary.

Handbook

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:01:24 -0800

Click the attachment below to download the Assured Tenants Handbook. (Depending on your system, this may take some time. Please be patient.)

Student Accomodation

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:57:01 -0700

KCHA currently has 1 student scheme for which we take direct applications. Details of this scheme are as follows:

62 Cranes Park, Surbiton, KT5 8AS

This is a large converted house with eight rooms for students. There is a resident warden who is available on Thursdays and in the evenings and at weekends.

The rental charge for the rooms ranges from £72.00 to £92.50 per week inclusive, depending on the size of the room. The rooms are part furnished. Bed-linen and towels are not provided.

There is limited street parking, but as it is a very busy area parking may be difficult. However it is close to public transport and the University.

There is a contract cleaner and a contract gardener, but students are expected to clean their own rooms and to keep the communal facilities clean in between the cleaner’s visits.

If you are interested in any of the rooms above, please contact the Housing Officer on 0208 399 7221 who will provide applications forms. Once the forms are returned he will arrange with the Wardens for you to view the rooms.

We currently have the following rooms available:

SCHEME	DESCRIPTION	RENT
No vacancies

Policies and Procedures

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:04:44 -0700

The website contains the four most important policies affecting our tenants and applicants for housing, namely Complaints, Customer Service Standards, Lettings and Rent Arrears.

In addition, the Tenants Handbook gives more information on how to pay your rent and what to do if you have a complaint, as well as details of how to report a repair.

If you have any queries and cannot find the answer in any of these documents, please contact us directly. We will be able to deal with your query and send you further details from a longer list of policies and procedures if applicable.

Board Membership

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:58:13 -0700

The Board of Management directs the work of the Association. It sets the key objectives and ensures that they are met. It meets four times a year in the evening at the Association’s offices in Surbiton. Board members will also be asked to join one of two Sub-Committees (which also meet four times a year in the evening in Surbiton), and to attend other occasional meetings or training events. At the moment all Board and Sub-Committee meetings are on a Monday evening at 6.30pm and almost always finish by 8.30pm. There is no remuneration for the role, but out of pocket expenses are paid for standard meetings or other events.

Board members must share the aims and values of KCHA, be willing to give a commitment of time and share responsibility for decisions. In addition, the Board must possess a range of skills and experience needed to run the business.

If you feel that you would like to help us build on our achievements to date, we will ask you to fill in a short application form to tell us a little more about yourself and your background and experience. The next step would be to invite you to meet informally with the Chairman and Chief Executive to discuss your application.

How you can do it

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:56:35 -0700

Our mission is to provide high quality permanent social housing at affordable rents, and responsive and effective services to our tenants. We think we are reasonably good at this, and this has been borne out by independent customer satisfaction surveys. However, there is certainly no room for complacency, and we are continually looking for better ways to collect feedback from our tenants and other stakeholders so as to improve our performance.

This website describes the Tenants’ Panel we have set up to try to get our tenants to play more of a part in how we manage and provide our services.

As a registered housing association, we are governed by a voluntary Board of Management, which sets our overall strategic objectives and monitors our performance. The Board also seeks to ensure that new members are recruited on a systematic and continuous basis to maintain membership at the agreed optimum level and with the rights mix of skills and experience. If you think you might be interested in joining the Board, the website tells you more.

Last but not least, we are supported by fundraising donations from many of the Churches in Kingston and from others. You can read more about what we do with these contributions and how to donate if you wish.

Contact Us

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:14:53 -0700

Our offices are situated in Surbiton at:
Meadway House
17/21 Brighton Road
Surbiton
Surrey
KT6 5LR

CLICK HERE for a link to a larger map of our location

The office is are at the junction of Victoria Road (the main shopping street in Surbiton) and Brighton Road, about 5 minutes walk from Surbiton train station and well served by a frequent buses from Kingston and surrounding areas. The entrance to Meadway House is between HJC Estates and Quality Dry Cleaners. On entering the building there is an entryphone on the right. If you buzz “KCHA” we will let you in, and you can come up to our offices on the first floor.

Our telephone and fax numbers are:

Telephone 020 8399 7221

Fax 020 8399 5282

You can also email us: office@kcha.co.uk

Or select our feedback form.

Our opening hours are:

Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.00pm
(Closed for lunch 1.00pm – 2.00pm)

Outside these hours you can leave a message on our telephone answerphone and we will get back to you as soon as we are able.

Tenants Panel

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:52:10 -0700

We’re always looking for better ways of enabling our residents to play their part in decision-making. Previous tenant satisfaction surveys carried out in 2000 and 2003 confirmed a much higher than average level of satisfaction with the way we keep residents informed and with your involvement in management decisions. Regrettably the latest survey in 2006 showed a lower level of satisfaction closer to the average for other housing associations, so the time is right to move forward.

in response we have now set up a Residents’ Panel, which had its first meeting in September 2007 and plans to continue on a regular basis. The overall aim is to provide a forum for discussing:

• How we can be more responsive to your views and priorities
• How we can give residents more opportunities to comment on our performance
• How we can enable you to play more of a part in how we manage and provide our services

In due course the Panel might want to choose a resident or residents to join the Association’s Board of Management or Housing Management & Maintenance Committee.

Membership continues to be open to any residents interested in taking part. If you do want to join the Panel, we'll be only too happy to pay your travel and other out-of-pocket expenses. But maybe attending meetings is not your cup of tea, and you can think of other ways you'd prefer to tell us what you think - including contacting us through this website? If so, we'd also be happy to hear from you.

So, if you think you might be at all interested in joining the Panel, or have any other suggestions, please get in touch. You can write, phone or email us. The two people to talk to are either the Chief Executive, John Castelberg, or the Housing Services Manager, Carol Ashton.

Lettings Policy

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:46:47 -0700

Kingston Churches Housing Association (KCHA) is a locally based housing
association operating mainly in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames,
but with additional properties in Elmbridge Borough Council, Guildford
Borough Council and the London Borough of Merton.

We currently own and manage 246 units of housing. This is made up of a mix of general
needs housing (for single people, couples, single parents and families),
sheltered housing for the elderly, three student houses, and a shared house for
the young single homeless.

The distribution of our housing units by local authority area is as follows:
Kingston – 208 units Elmbridge – 15 units
Guildford – 16 units Merton – 7 units

We aim to provide affordable housing to rent for people in the greatest housing
need and least able to solve their own housing problems, working in partnership
with the local authorities in whose areas we operate.

We operate an Equality and Diversity Policy to ensure that our housing and
services are available to all who need them irrespective of: race, colour, ethnic
origin or nationality; gender; illness or disability, whether mental or physical;
religious, cultural or other beliefs; marital or family status; sexuality or sexual
preference; age, physical appearance or other characteristic.

In the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK) we are members of the
Kingston Housing Partnership, comprising the local authority and ten local
housing associations. These eleven organisations jointly operate the Kingston
Housing Register to make sure that everyone who applies for housing is
considered for all properties available. Full details of the scheme are available
on request.

Similar partnership arrangements operate in Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC)
and Guildford Borough Council (GBC).

For this reason, all of our general needs housing and most of our sheltered
housing for the elderly in these three areas is allocated through the common
housing registers, or occasionally to priority internal transfers. We do not
therefore maintain our own open waiting list.

In all three areas, however, we do have a small number of sheltered housing
units for the elderly that are more difficult to let because they comprise bedsits,
usually with shared facilities. It is not always possible to let these properties
through the common housing registers. We do maintain our own open waiting
lists for these properties, and further details and an application form are
available on request.

In the London Borough of Merton (LBM) our only housing scheme comprises a
shared house for seven young single homeless persons. Allocations to this
scheme are made through our partner organisation, Kingston Churches Action
on Homelessness (KCAH).

We also have two houses in RBK providing accommodation for 19 students.
These are mainly let through Kingston University although we also accept direct
applications from students attending other universities.

How do I become a tenant?

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:45:29 -0700

Kingston Churches Housing Association lets its properties to people in housing need.

Many people contact us direct to find out if they can become a tenant. Unfortunately, because of the way housing associations operate and are funded, we are mostly unable to take direct applications. However, we do maintain a waiting list for the small number of sheltered properties we have. These are bedsits or one-bedroom flats for people over 55 years, with an on-site Warden to provide some help and support (but not care) If you are looking for sheltered accommodation please contact the office on 0208 399 7221 and we will supply you with information on property available and an application form.

We also have a small number of student properties. These are let to students attending Kingston University. If you are a student currently at Kingston University, or are about to attend the university, and are looking for somewhere to live, please contact the office and we will give you information on the property available and supply you with an application form. For more details of the student properties see Details of properties.

We are a member of the Kingston Housing Register which is run by Kingston Upon Thames Council and 10 other housing associations working in partnership to ensure that looking for a new home is both simple and convenient. If you wish to apply for housing through the Kingston Housing Register you will need to complete the Common Housing Register application form. We can send you one of these if you contact us on 0208 399 7221. Alternatively you can pick up a form from the Housing Department at Kingston Council located in Kingston Guildhall One, or telephone 020 8547 5470.

For our properties in other local authority areas, we also usually house people only through the relevant local authority’s housing waiting list.

Fundraising Appeal

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:44:30 -0700

We continue to receive generous donations to our Fundraising Appeal both from many of the Churches in Kingston and from individuals. The money has been used to help our work with the homeless in Kingston and to contribute to our general tenants’ welfare fund. For example, we spent £6,500 installing a much-needed new central heating system for the single homeless project which we run jointly with Kingston Churches Action on Homeless (KCAH). And in 2005 we launched a scheme to help our older and disabled tenants with decorations to their homes (all our tenants are normally responsible for their own internal decorations).

There are many more opportunities like this to help our work. For example, the fund helped us launch this updated website in 2006 to allow tenants to find out more easily about our work and plans for the future, to report repairs online, to let us know their views and so forth.

So thanks to all the churches and individuals who have given so generously to date – but if you would like to contribute to our continuing Fundraising Appeal please complete the yellow slip enclosed with this Annual Report, or contact us directly at our offices.

Staff and Board

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:30:12 -0700

The Board of Management
A voluntary Board of Management is responsible for the work of the Association.
Members of the Board of Management bring a wide range of skills and experience.
The Board develops overall policy and monitors the Association’s performance to see
that its objectives are achieved. There are also two separate sub-committees (Housing
Management and Maintenance; and Finance, Development and General Purposes) who
work more closely with staff and make recommendations to the Board of Management.

As at June 2008 the members of the Board of Management were:

Mr David Richards, Chairman
Ms Brenda Adamson, Hon Treasurer
Ms Glennis Beresford-Bevan
Mr Roger Lambert
Ms Shirley Lecky
Mr Tom McMurray
Mr Vimal Perera
Mr John Stokes
Mr Declan Terry
Mr Iain Thomson
Mrs Sheila Ward

David Richards will be retiring as Chairman and will be replaced by Tom McMurray from July 2008.

Staff Structure

Chief Executive
Mr John Castelberg

Consultant Finance Manager
Mrs Lynn Boyd

Administrator
Ms Janet Cooper

Housing Services Manager
Mrs Carol Ashton

Accounts Assistant (p/t)
Ms Lurdes Perez
Maternity cover from April 2008 to January 2009: Ms Sharon Lock

Housing Officer
Mr Rosscoe Brown

Housing Assistant (p/t)
Mrs Karen Clements

Sheltered and Student Wardens

Mrs Sandy Edmonds
Ms Sue Scott
Mr Martin Keelor