What to expect...
Your new home should be a great place to live. To make sure you're happy in your new home, we promise to make sure that it's clean, safe and secure - ready for you to enjoy from the moment you move in. We've established some guidelines about what to expect from your Irwell Valley home and how it should look:
- When you arrive, your home will be clean & tidy. Everything will be working properly
- All the walls, ceilings and woodwork will be ready for you to decorate
- Curtain battens will have been fitted
- All the floor coverings will be well-fitted - without stains or damage
- All windows will open, close and lock easily (if locks are fitted)
- A copy of the Gas Safety Certificate will be found in your "Welcome Pack"
- Any fire and smoke detectors will have been checked
- When refurbishing your new home, we establish a new kitchen is required you will be given the option to select the kitchen to be installed in your new home. Please ask your Letting Officer about this once you have been assigned your new home.
- In relation to the decoration you can expect in your new home, please see below our Decoration Allowance Guidelines
Decoration Allowance Guidelines- Lettings/ Property Investment Team
Purpose
This procedure guide aims to provide a coherent and consistent approach to the decorating of the Association’s empty properties. The procedure guide will ensure that decisions on decoration are made in a fair, open and non-discriminatory way.
This procedure will set out the minimum criteria for the decoration of an empty property including the method and amount, to ensure that service delivery is consistent and is not reliant upon customer request.
Decision making
The decision as to whether a property should be decorated as part of the relet works or through the issuing of decoration vouchers, will be made after the Pre-Inspection has taken place. The decision is to be of mutual agreement between both the Property Investment Team and the Lettings Team.
Property Investment
The Property Investment Team will decorate a property as part of the relet works under the following circumstances:
• The incoming customers’ inability to decorate themselves – as advised by the Lettings Department.
• Smoke damaged properties ( following fire)
• Following major structural/ remedial woks affecting whole property
• Following severe damp
• Flood damaged properties
• Properties affected by graffiti
• Historically hard to let properties- as advised by the Lettings Department
• Current décor would have a negative impact on lettability and could not be rectified by the use of decoration vouchers- as advised by the Lettings Department
It is important to note that in each of the above circumstances, the prospective customer may opt to carry out the decoration themselves using decorating vouchers.
Lettings Team
The Lettings Team will award decorating vouchers to new customers using the following matrix:
Property Type 1 Room Affected 2 Rooms Affected 3 Rooms Affected
Studio 30 60 90
1 Bed Flat 55 110 165
2 Bed Flat 60 120 180
1 Bed House 55 110 165
2 Bed House 70 140 210
3 Bed House 75 150 225
4 Bed House 80 160 240
5 Bed House 85 170 255
Property Type 4 Room Affected 5 Rooms Affected 6+ Rooms Affected
Studio 120 N/A N/A
1 Bed Flat 220 275 330
2 Bed Flat 240 300 360
1 Bed House 220 275 330
2 Bed House 280 350 420
3 Bed House 300 375 450
4 Bed House 320 400 480
5 Bed House 340 425 510
The Lettings Team will use the above matrix to award decorating vouchers under the following circumstances:
• Current décor tired and worn
• Current décor is not intact (wallpaper ripped/ paint chipped)
• Current décor is not of prospective customer’s taste
• Current décor would have a negative impact on the letting of the property in current state
• Current décor is in good condition but consists of dated materials e.g blown vinyl/ wood chip
Exceptions
As the issuing a decoration vouchers can be used as a tool to reduce the number of refusals, the Lettings Team may issue vouchers as a sales tool when dealing with hard to let properties. Under these circumstances, vouchers may be issued outside of this procedure guide but with the prior approval of the Lettings Manager/ Lettings Team Leader.
Please
click here to download our information leaflet on what to expect and check for when you're moving into your new Irwell Valley home.