A housing association piloting a Government led tenant cashback scheme has had to rethink its strategy after problems surrounding landlord insurance became an issue.
Hastoe Housing Association owns and manages upwards of 4,000 properties in the South of England and was chosen to be just one of four associations chosen to pilot a government scheme whereby tenants were allowed to do some of the more mundane low risk repair and maintenance jobs in their own homes, and were rewarded by getting cash back from the housing association. It was envisaged that jobs undertaken by tenants such as gardening and outside painting jobs in communal areas would save the associations money, some of which they could pass onto the tenants who completed the work.
However, Sue Chalkley, chief executive of Hastoe, found things were not quite so straightforward, she explained: “Our property insurance company made it clear we could not allow tenants to do any work which would ask them to climb more than three steps or that involved any power tools. We still have to come to an agreed position with our insurance company as they have concerns that if we’re going to give anybody money to do their own repairs, we’d have to have an employer-employee relationship with them. I just think in principle, we are positive about the scheme but we are hitting some very real practical difficulties around insurance.”
Hastoe have now abandoned the idea of paying tenants cash for doing repairs but are looking for ways to carry the initiative forward. For the time being they are sending tenants who wish to do simple jobs a set of tools to complete the task and it seems that many tenants are quite happy to do this as it means they don’t have to wait long periods waiting for contractors to turn up. Ms Chalkley was keen to praise tenants who volunteered to do work saying: “I think it’s about respecting tenants as people who are capable of looking after their homes.”