Dear residents,
If you haven’t received a letter yet this year, you may receive a letter from us regarding rent increases and explaining service charges. If you have any questions that aren’t answered below, please contact your Tenancy Management Officer.
Why is my rent being increased?
In line with your tenancy agreement, we are able to increase the rent once a year – in April. We do this to enable us to be able us to continue providing all the services we deliver such as repairs, compliance checks, tenancy management and planned improvements to sites and individual properties, all of which the costs rise in line with inflation. Last year was the first time in 5 years that we had increased rent and we do try to keep this to a minimum. Any money we receive through rent increases goes back into providing and improving our services for residents.
I am worried about keeping up with my rent, what should I do?
If you have any concerns about paying your rent, please contact us. We have an in house Welfare and Benefits Advisor who can offer some support. You can contact Jane White on JaneW@ccha.biz or call 07384 255630 . If you are receiving Universal Credit or Housing Benefit, you should contact them to let them know about the increase so that your benefits can be reviewed to reflect this. Other things you can consider if you are have financial difficulty are:
- Applying for Discretionary Housing Payment here.
- Use a benefits calculator such as Entitled To, to see if you can maximise your income here.
What are service charges?
Service charges are the costs for maintaining the communal aspects of a property. It is used to cover services such as cleaning, gardening, electric, window cleaning and various other items. On the breakdown you receive there will be a split for ‘service charges eligible for Housing Benefit’ and ‘service charges not eligible for Housing Benefit’. If you have charges which fall into the first category and you are receiving Universal Credit or Housing benefit, you should contact them to advise of this and the increase so this can be reviewed and reflected in the amount you receive.
Why haven’t I received a service charge schedule?
Some residents pay service charges within their rental amount rather than separately and so don’t receive a service charge schedule as the amount is a fixed sum. If you are on an Affordable Rent or London Living Rent, you won’t receive a separate service charge schedule.
There is an item on my service charge schedule I don’t think I should be paying for, what is this?
Our service charges are based on invoices we receive from contractors who are providing these services. We check invoices carefully to ensure they match with what we are expecting to receive and that the costs are attributed to the correct properties.
If you have any questions, please contact your Tenancy Management Officer.
For benefits advice, please contact ccha’s Welfare and Benefits Advisor on JaneW@ccha.biz or 07384 255630.
Dear Residents,
The 2021/2022 Warm Home Discount scheme is now open to applications. If you are successful, you will get £140 off your electricity bill.
The scheme is open to anyone on means tested benefits or low income (e.g. if you receive Universal Credit, ESA or Job Seekers etc).
Most of the larger companies have now joined the scheme (including EDF, British Gas, Scottish Power, SSE) but once the allocated money is gone, the scheme will close until next year, so get your applications in quickly.
Contact your energy provider to find out how to apply.
If you need any help with your application, or want some financial advice, you can contact our Welfare & Debt Advice Officer, Jane on janew@ccha.biz or call 07384 255 630.
Dear Residents,
Social housing is a much needed option across all boroughs of London.
As a social housing provider, we have recently received queries regarding our focus on building properties for Shared Ownership or Private Sales. As part of our strategic objective to build more affordable homes within our operating boroughs, we are building a mixture of Shared Ownership, Help to Buy, London Living Rent and Social Housing to meet needs. Focusing on selling homes helps us to use profits to improve the services we provide as well as allowing us to build more Social Housing.
You can read more about our new developments and the processes in our new FAQ section here.
The summer edition of connections, your resident newsletter, is here! Click here to read it online today.
In this edition, find out about:
- Service updates at ccha
- Funding for community projects
- Our new Director of Homes, Steve Fox
- Changes to our survey and complaints process
- And much more.
Want to receive connections directly to your inbox? Click here to sign up to our email list.
If you wish to receive the connections newsletter through the post, request your word document version by calling: 020 8633 8731 or email us at citeam@ccha.biz.
We are pleased to announce that Summit Elevators has won the new Lift Servicing and Maintenance contract.
The contracts begins on the 1st of July 2021 and is a 2 year contract which covers all lift servicing and maintenance for both our communal passenger lifts and our domestic lifting equipment.
We will be issuing letters shortly to all residents who have lifts in their building and you may see Summit Elevators around your property.
If you have any questions, you can contact the Property Services Team at ccha by calling 0800 054 6710.
Dear Residents,
As a responsible landlord, ccha strive to ensure the communal areas are safe for residents and visitors.
As staff are not based at our estates, we are not always aware of an issue or a repair that may be required in communal areas. If you come across an issue or a repair that requires our attention, please contact us on 0800 054 6710. Reporting issues and repairs helps us to work together to safeguard residents and visitors using those areas and to prevent any accidents.
Thank you for your cooperation,
ccha
Dear Residents,
Once a year we seek feedback from you on how we are doing with our service delivery. By listening to you we are given the best opportunity to review our service provision and implement improvements and changes.
We are keen to gain insight and understanding about our residents’ satisfaction levels and in order to enhance our approach from 1 April 2021 we have partnered with an external business, Acuity Research & Practice Ltd to provide this service on behalf of ccha.
Each survey will be undertaken over the telephone. If you do not wish to be contacted, then you can opt-out by informing us by emailing citeam@ccha.biz or telephone 0208 633 8736. Alternatively, you can inform the researcher when they contact you and we will remove you from our research database.
To undertake this research, we will be providing your contact details to Acuity Research in a secure data file. Please rest assured that your personal data is being shared on a strict protocol basis that meets the Data Protection Act requirements and all data will be securely destroyed within 1 year of provision. If you would like further details about the use of your personal data in relation to this research, then please contact us or refer to our privacy notice which can be found on our website.
Your feedback is important to us so we do hope you will be willing to take part. Your contribution will help us to improve our service delivery. We will keep you informed by providing regular updates on your feedback and our response through our various media channels.
Customer Investment Team
T: 0208 633 8736
Over the last few months we have been working on updating our Money Matters leaflets. These leaflets are here to help you understand the process of paying your rent, how to access the benefits you are entitled to and provide advice on managing debt. Our updated leaflets have all the latest information you need to help pay your rent and manage your money. Use the links below to download the leaflets. You can also find them on the website here and here.
Don’t forget, you can always contact our Welfare & Debt Advice Officer if you want one-to-one help and guidance. You can call Jane on: 07384255630 or email her at: JaneW@ccha.biz.
Need help setting up rent payments? You can contact our Income Team on: 020 8633 8768 or 020 8633 8773 or email: income@ccha.biz.
If you’d like a physical copy of these leaflets, please email customers@ccha.biz.
Dear residents,
At the end of February/early March, we will be sending letters out to residents detailing rent increases and explaining service charges. If you have any question that aren’t answered below, please contact your Tenancy Management Officer.
Why is my rent being increased?
In line with your tenancy agreement, we are able to increase the rent once a year – in April. We do this to enable us to be able us to continue providing all the services we deliver such as repairs, compliance checks, tenancy management and planned improvements to sites and individual properties, all of which the costs rise in line with inflation. Last year was the first time in 5 years that we had increased rent and we do try to keep this to a minimum. Any money we receive through rent increases goes back into providing and improving our services for residents.
I am worried about keeping up with my rent, what should I do?
If you have any concerns about paying your rent, please contact us. We have an in house Welfare and Benefits Advisor who can offer some support. You can contact Jane White on JaneW@ccha.biz or call 07384 255630 . If you are receiving Universal Credit or Housing Benefit, you should contact them to let them know about the increase so that your benefits can be reviewed to reflect this. Other things you can consider if you are have financial difficulty are:
- Applying for Discretionary Housing Payment here.
- Use a benefits calculator such as Entitled To, to see if you can maximise your income here.
What are service charges?
Service charges are the costs for maintaining the communal aspects of a property. It is used to cover services such as cleaning, gardening, electric, window cleaning and various other items. On the breakdown you receive there will be a split for ‘service charges eligible for Housing Benefit’ and ‘service charges not eligible for Housing Benefit’. If you have charges which fall into the first category and you are receiving Universal Credit or Housing benefit, you should contact them to advise of this and the increase so this can be reviewed and reflected in the amount you receive.
Why haven’t I received a service charge schedule?
Some residents pay service charges within their rental amount rather than separately and so don’t receive a service charge schedule as the amount is a fixed sum. If you are on an Affordable Rent or London Living Rent, you won’t receive a separate service charge schedule.
There is an item on my service charge schedule I don’t think I should be paying for, what is this?
Our service charges are based on invoices we receive from contractors who are providing these services. We check invoices carefully to ensure they match with what we are expecting to receive and that the costs are attributed to the correct properties.
If you have any questions, please contact your Tenancy Management Officer.
For benefits advice, please contact ccha’s Welfare and Benefits Advisor on JaneW@ccha.biz or 07384 255630.
Important notice:
Dear Residents,
I hope you are keeping well during these difficult times.
I would like to introduce myself – My name is Jane White and I am the new Welfare Officer for ccha. My role is to support residents to claim all the Benefits they may be entitled to, as well as looking at other ways to help you if you are experiencing any difficulties with your finances.
I can help with:
- Applying for benefits
- Difficulties with Universal Credit
- Housing Benefit
- Council Tax
- Form filling – e.g. Personal Independence Payment, DLA
- Appeals/Tribunals
- Challenging DWP decisions such as sanctions
- Maximising Income
- Back to Work calculations
- Debts – including Water, Gas, Electricity
- Food banks
Sometimes when people are having a financial issue, it can be incredibly stressful and working with another person to resolve the issue can help put your mind at rest.
If you would like to have a chat to see if I can help you, please do get in touch:
Mobile: 07384255630
Landline: 020 8633 8767
My email: janew@ccha.biz