About the project.
Project Requirement & Process
Consul were appointed onto a three year framework through Procure Public to initially undertake 900 stock condition surveys for Moat properties across Essex including urban and rural locations in the 1st year.
- The 900 properties were spread across the entire county of Essex. To ensure efficiency of the surveys Consul arranged the inspection of the properties geographically.
- To complete each stock condition survey, Consul contacted each resident by email, phone and letter to organise the survey.
- Consul utilised Moat’s system (MRI) to record and present the stock condition surveys so the information was in a user-friendly format for Moat. The surveys included a review of the whole property externally and internally including services.
- Consul also undertook 400No audited stock condition surveys carried out by others including Moats own surveyors across the rest of the Southeast area.
Consul resourced our team to complete 2300 surveys in 8 months as instructed. We remain on Moats framework and are still undertaking stock condition survey audits throughout the year and will undertake further stock condition surveys in the future when instructed.
Details
Client
Moat Homes Ltd
Services Used
Survey Scope
To complete the surveys, we filled out an online form using Moats preferred system MRI on a handheld tablet which included reviewing the condition, quantities and approximate date of renewal. As part of the survey we would highlight urgent repairs, take photos and advise of any safeguarding concerns. In addition to the list below we highlighted adaptions, renewable technology and identified hazards as part of the HHSRS assessments.
Challenges
Additional surveys
Moat asked Consul on two occasions whether additional surveys could be undertaken within year 1, including 600 properties that had recently been transferred from L&Q. Consul reviewed the resources available, reallocated personnel to undertake this work and accepted the additional surveys.
HHSRS Assessments
Consul integrated the HHSRS assessments into the stock condition survey by inspecting and highlighting hazards such as damp/mould growth, entry by intruders and falling on level surfaces.
Access
Consul ensured all residents were contacted on three separate occasions across 4No weeks via all possible methods available including phone and email where information was available and posting letters. We also staggered the survey days to ensure that if some residents were only available on certain days this was not a problem. In addition to this we also allocated a series of Saturday’s for residents that were not available during the week.
Solution
Additional surveys
Consul were able to provide additional resources to speed up the progression of the initial 900 properties and to complete the additional 600 properties, these were contacted and surveyed where possible by the end of the financial year as agreed. The last 600 properties which were issued in February and completed by mid-May following on from the initial 1500 properties as agreed with Moat. This demonstrates Consul’s ability to manage and adapt to Client’s needs by adequately resourcing work and hitting agreed targets.
HHSRS Assessments
We assisted Moat by taking photos of the hazard reporting the extent and risk to the residents and highlighted the possible causes or further investigations that would be required to identify a remedy.
Access
Our method of contacting residents recording all appointments on a detailed tracker spreadsheet meant that 69% of the properties were surveyed and only 16% of the appointments were missed by residents. The remaining properties were completely unresponsive to Consuls attempts to contact them.
Result & Benefits to Moat
Consul were able to take on additional surveys to those initially agreed and were still completed to the original timescale. This meant that Moat had the information to plan and manage their housing stock to ensure money was suitably allocated to relevant projects. Consul also highlighted any urgent repairs found during the survey so these could be repaired before causing further damage.
The flexibility to adapt to the area, undertake weekend surveys and to accommodate residents’ availability ensured that the percentage of surveys completed increased from 51% to 69% over the course of the 8-month project.