Changes have been made to the housing needs, existing aplplicant section of the script to include and route for reviews. Existing applicants have been asked to complete a review of their application due to the changes of the policy and may need to complete some additional questions.

If customers require assistance with this the script will allow you to pass the enquiry onto housing needs for a call back

These options will also work for any annual review enquiries that come in through the year.

The changes are available to view in test and will go live tonight ready for Monday morning.

Any questions please speak to the seniors in the first instance.

As part of a Legal requirement to undertake 5 year inspections of the electrical systems, the DLO sent out letters to council tenanted properties in December setting out the need to undertake an Electrical Installation Condition Reports.

The DLO have been undertaken a number of these and have also sub-contracted some of this work to I. Fraser & Sons Rothes who will also make contact with the tenants. This has been incorporated as an addition to the Housing > CPT/Planned Maintenance script (you will see it at the bottom along with the page on Heating Upgrades, etc.), and these enquiries will be directed to the DLO Schedulers via the script options. The script will go live at 5pm tonight.

If you have any issues with the script please pass via your Senior in the first instance.

Please be reminded that The Moray Council will be closed on Friday 29th March for Easter Weekend. Please do not book any jobs in for Friday. For any 1 day Urgent jobs that come in on Thursday please change the number of days to 4 on the ticket to include Monday 1st April, when the Council returns. If the job cannot wait until then it will need to be upgraded to an emergency ticket.

ICT have confirmed that the rents file was received later than usual yesterday therefore missed the scheduled upload, these payments will show on tomorrow’s file.

Please be mindful when giving out balances today as these may not be accurate.

Please be advised DD notifications have landed with tenants this morning. Please find attached the template letter that was produced here. 2024/25 FY is a 53 week year, with rent being charged 49 weeks. DD’s have (as letters states) been calculated to collect 5 weeks rent 2nd April and thereafter revert to 4 weeks rent from 1st May.

Housing have advised that their housing online application form will not be available between 25 March and 1st April while they update the system in preparation for the changes to the allocations policy. The below has been put on social media:

We are updating our housing system in preparation for upcoming changes to our Allocations Policy. Work will start on Monday 25 March and is due to finish by Monday 1 April.

During these dates, our online housing application service will not be available and we may not be able to help with certain housing enquiries. Please try to avoid getting in touch with us during this time unless you are homeless and urgently need our help.

If you are homeless or threatened with homelessness, please phone us:
0300 123 4566 (in office hours)
03457 565656 (out of hours)
 

Thank you for your patience while we carry out this essential update.

If you have any questions, please pass via your senior in the first instance.

Following on from a previous discussion regarding Scheduler contact details, I can confirm that contact details will now be updated through the Repairs script only. As a result, no information hub posts will be created when there is a staffing change as all relevant information will be displayed in the repairs script.

As always, if you have any questions please discuss with seniors in the first instance.

Kindest regards

Donna / CS Team Leader

A new Allocations Policy has been agreed for implementation from 1 April 2024. There will be changes to the criteria for awarding points and to the level of points awarded (see summary here).

In preparation for the implementation date, changes will be made to Housing Online, applicant resources (website and leaflet) will be updated and applicants will be contacted to advise of the change (applicants will be contacted by email where possible) and staff briefings will be issued. The Tenants Downsizing Incentive Scheme resources will also be udpated to reflect the agreed changes.

In addition to this, a new Rent Setting Policy has been approved for implementation on 1 April 2024. A new rent setting structure will replace the current model. A baseline rent with along with property attributes will determine the rent. Tenants will be provided with transitional relief so that rent will not increase/decrease by more than £7.50 per week. This is separate to the annual rent increase which is yet to be considered by Council. A staff briefing is available on Sharepoint in the Housing Policy and Procedures library. The website will be updated and an explanatory leaflet for tenants/future tenants developed - see here.

All tenants will be issued with a notice advising them of the change (which will include the annual increase once agreed). The notice will explain how their new rent has been calculated, including what attributes were considered and will state what the actual rent for 2024-25 will be. This will be issued at the end of February in order to give 4 weeks notice of the change. Tenants will be advised to contact their Area Housing Officer should they have any queries.

We have been made aware that there is an issue with the extraction of new accounts showing on Pay360. The automated process our side hasn’t been effected however there is an issue with the upload to the payment site and it looks like the issue goes back to tenancies created from mid-February.

ICT are liaising with Pay360 and will provide an update once they have received further information/resolution.

In the meantime if you have any tenants this is effecting who still want to pay online they can pay via alternative methods, i.e. via the contact centre, online banking or the automated payment line.

We will advise once the issue has been resolved.

Please be advsied the following letters are being sent out today:

Rent Change Notices - (approx. 6210) have been produced following the Council’s increase approval of 7.7%.
Garage Rent Notices

Please note that there is a typo on the weekly rent table section of the letter: the value quoted for the revised rent is correct but the year should of course read 2023/24.