Through the Carmarthenshire Homes Standard, we are committed to making sure that all homes are suitable for the households that live in them. For elderly or disabled people, we will aim to adapt their homes to suit their needs. On average, we are committed to spending nearly £1.5 million every year to make sure that homes are adapted to meet our tenants’ needs. This work can range from converting heating systems from solid fuel to gas and oil to building major extensions.
Sometimes the property is simply not suitable for an adaptation to suit the needs of the tenants living in it. To help decide which properties are and are not suitable, we have been testing a traffic-light priority system.
Green – The property is suitable to be adapted easily.
Amber – The property can be adapted but at a high cost.
Red – The property cannot be adapted.
If your property is not suitable for an adaptation, we will aim to find other accommodation that is suitable for your needs or that we can adapt more easily. To make moving homes easier, we will:
- pay reasonable costs for furniture removals;
- pay reasonable costs for carpets and curtains;
- for the new property, speed up any adaptations and work relating to the Carmarthenshire Homes Standard;
- consider other reasonable requests for compensation; and
- give priority to tenants who need an adaptation but who are living in a property that cannot be adapted (the red traffic light).
What quality of service can you expect to receive?
Over the next eight years, we plan to invest over £200 million in improvements to tenants’ homes and the estate environment those homes are in. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring the homes up to modern-day standards. However, we do know that carrying out work in your home can be disruptive, and you may be very reluctant to allow us to do this work.
To reassure you and make sure you know exactly what is happening, we will give you an agreement before the work begins. We call this the ‘major-work agreement’.
The major-work agreement is a good-practice guide produced by tenants and council officers. You should also see it as a code of conduct, as it says how we and the contractors we appoint will act when carrying out major work on your home.
The agreement contains information on the following.
- Who is and isn’t involved in the agreement
- The responsibilities of the main people involved in the scheme to carry out the work
- How we will consult you
- What the work will involve
- Your choice of finishes
- Any other work we will do
- How we will handle disruption and delays
- When you are entitled to compensation and how much that will be
- How your rent will be affected
- Damage and breakages
- Personal safety
- The role of your county councillor
- How you can ask questions and make complaints, compliments and comments
Before we begin work, a council officer will visit you to discuss the contents of the
major-work agreement before we and you sign up to it.
Do you get a choice of kitchen units, bathroom tiles and so on?
When carrying out the work programme, we will give you some choice on the following.
- Kitchen units
- Tiles
- Worktops
- Windows and doors
In some circumstances, you can choose to have extra items. You can discuss these when the officer visits your home to talk about the major-work agreement. If you decide to choose extra items, we will take the cost of these from any compensation we pay you.
Although we give you some choice, we have to limit the choices as we need to make sure that we have a range which we can easily supply if we need to repair or replace that item at a later date. We have agreed all choices with your tenant representatives on the Delivering the Carmarthenshire Homes Standard Consultation Group.