Windows and Doors Debâcle

You would think, you might perhaps assume, and probably even bet good money that a Housing Association such as GreenSquareAccord would be able to provide windows and doors that opened and closed. If (for whatever reason) they were not able to, you would think they would quickly rectify the issue and offer an apology.

Is this what happened? Of course not, that would be ‘simply brilliant’.

A residents meeting with GreenSquareAccord - Hoorah (?)

After months of being ignored, having emails lost (and / or) blocked, and with a customer service team unable to raise a response from the senior team, some forty Oxford residents were invited to a virtual meeting.

I will, over the coming weeks be publishing the feedback from this meeting as it highlights so many of the issues, the problems with Housing Associations, and staff members who claim it’s a vocation not a job yet lack empathy, passion and the skillset to actually do the work.

Agenda Point No 1 was - an introduction

During this introduction Claire Cook (service charge and leasehold manager) said "...we will make some notes and we will distribute them after the meeting, um but we don't give consent for this meeting to be recorded in anyway, visually or audibly, in audio..."

As of the 27th March, notes have not been forthcoming.

Agenda Point No 2 - Windows and patio doors installation update

The update was - there is no update.

Claire skilfully handed this over to Zoe who stated that as written in the newsletter (many months ago) they still envisioned this happening in the springtime. To be fair, they did not specify which year. Apparently this is GreenSquareAccord moving forward.

When asked why something that had first been reported back in 2019 (at which point this issue should have been covered by GreenSquareAccord’s insurance), had been agreed as an action by Ruth Cooke in 2020, and been subject to section 20 consultation during 2021 yet was still ongoing, blame was assigned to the following, in no particular order: COVID, their contractor having staffing issues, unable to order materials. In short the blame (according to GreenSquareAccord) sat firmly with everyone but themselves.

Claire Cook then interjected and noted that we were ‘top of their list’. This must be worrying to all other GreenSquareAccord residents. She then blamed all the subcontractors for going off and getting other work during COVID, and then explained that ultimately [GreenSquareAccord] were “in [the subcontractor's’] hands a bit really, cause you know, we don’t have an alternative, urn ur, to having a contractor do this for us so, you know we’re pushing really hard for it to get done because we’re aware that you know we said we would get this done last Spring, so we completely get that it’s really important and we’ll just keep pushing it.”

I can assure you this came as no surprise but offered little comfort to the residents who have just spent yet another winter with escalating fuel bills, and an inability to close windows that had dropped.

Residents then asked general questions around the type of windows, how long they would take to fit, would there be scaffolding, what notice period could we expect, costings, etc. The sort of questions that if you wrote an agenda that included ‘Window and Patio Doors’ as a subject you’d have already considered and have answers. After all, this process had been fully considered and was only delayed due to the contractor, right?

Clare Cook “I don’t know, I presuming there will be scaffolding… Shall we go away and clarify and come back with a bit of a method statement…”

Why would Claire Cook in her role of service charge and leasehold manager (earning circa £40-50k) not have already gathered this information before attending a meeting in which she has agreed to update residents on this issue? Especially since this was their agenda point!

Drawing a line in the sand

Claire Cook agreed to go and gather answers to all these questions and come back with clear and concise answers. This has not yet happened. She would also “try and get some idea of notice of when they’re coming”.

“the thing you’ve got to remember though Ben we’re not technicians here, we’re the leasehold team, so what we’ll do is what I’ve commit to, is we’ll go back to the team that are the technicians and we’ll ask for the relevant information, urn and certainly enough to give you an idea about you know general situation is, then closer to the time we can make sure you’ve absolutely got all the infomtaiton you’re gonna need.”

- Claire Cooke

Nobody expected Claire to have technical knowledge. What we expected was for her to consider the options and perhaps anticipate some (if not all) of these very reasonable questions. Surely this would have been covered by the RAMS (Risk and Method statements) and as such surely GreenSquareAccord would know:

• How long would it take to fit

• How much notice would be given

• What type of windows would be used

• Had the price increased since last year

• Would scaffolding be needed

However she didn’t.

“We’ve had some very valid questions tonight, we don’t know what the answers are, frankly we are not going to BS you by giving you a load of stuff which is not right… We are not technicians, we are not window fitters… So, what I’m saying to you is, we don’t have that technical knowledge, but we will go away, and we will try and find the answers to those very reasonable questions that have been asked… What we’ll do is our best to get this information out to you. ”

- Claire Cook

An apology given?

Of course not.

Their agenda point, yet they had not been able to provide an update other than it’ll happen sometime in the Spring. A project that was already overdue.

I’m not sure what is worse; the fact that they didn’t prepare for the meeting, that nobody was embarrassed, or that they didn’t even own the issues and apologise to their residents. That would have been ‘simply brilliant’…

First Agenda Point - in conclusion

It seems that Claire Cook still lacks empathy, is unable to prepare for a meeting, is certain that she isn’t a technician, and isn’t prepared to offer the many residents (who have just endured another winter with poorly fitted windows) an apology.

• Is this what Ruth Cooke means by ‘simply brilliant landlord’?

• How is Claire Cook supporting GreenSquareAccord on this journey?

• Is this a case of ‘old habits dying hard’?