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Cirencester Housing has taken the decision to transfer all 176 of its homes to Cottsway. We will take ownership of these homes on 1 December 2023 and will become responsible on that date for their maintenance and services for the customers living in them.
Cirencester Housing has taken the decision to transfer all 176 of its homes to Cottsway. We will take ownership of these homes on 1 December 2023 and will become responsible on that date for their maintenance and services for the customers living in them.
Cirencester Housing decided to merge with Cottsway at a meeting held on 19 October 2023. This transfer decision comes at a time when housing associations are facing increasing regulatory requirements and a challenging economic climate.
Cirencester Housing took the decision as it felt that Cottsway was better equipped to take on the regulatory challenges, while being able to provide the best for their customers.
For more information see the press release: Cirencester Housing to transfer stock to Cottsway
You should have received a letter from Cirencester Housing explaining about the decision to go ahead with the transfer and details of what to expect next. If you have not received this letter, please call them on 01285 658377.
Cirencester Housing will remain responsible for your property and all the services you receive until 1 December. This means that you simply need to continue to contact them in the same way that you have always done, until the merger officially happens.
We will take over responsibility for your home on Friday 1 December 2023 and you should then contact us with any issues about your home.
Before the transfer officially happens in December, we will:
Please be assured that Cirencester Housing will keep us informed of customer requests that remain outstanding by 1 December and we will contact you as soon as possible about this after the transfer has happened.
We understand that this may be a worrying time so we will be keeping in touch with you throughout the process and in the meantime have tried to address some of the queries you may have below.
Cirencester Housing has decided that transferring to Cottsway will:
As part of this transfer, Cottsway has committed to delivering merger promises. from 1 December 2023, transferring customers will have access to:
In addition, we will also:
Your housing officers will be Tom Coggins, who has transferred across to Cottsway from Cirencester Housing, and Matt Harper. Many of you will already know Tom and we are pleased to welcome him and some of the other Cirencester Housing staff who have decided to join us at Cottsway.
Matt is an experienced housing officer and has already been covering our existing homes in the Cirencester area.
Tom and Matt will be doing estate visits on 5 and 6 December and hopes to get to see you then. We will keep you updated if there is any change to your housing officer/s in the future.
If you need to get in touch about anything, our customer services team are your first point of contact, so please contact us
There will be no changes to your tenancy agreement. Cottsway will simply take over the contract and we will continue to honour your agreement. All your current terms and conditions remain unchanged.
Your current agreement continues to stand. You remain as the leaseholder and Cottsway becomes the freeholder, rather than Cirencester Housing, assuming all our responsibilities under the lease agreement. Your rent payments and lease responsibilities will continue in line with your agreement.
Your rent, and any service charges you may pay, will remain the same under the transfer.
Your final payment to Cirencester Housing will be in November 2023. From 1 December 2023, your rent payments will need to be made to Cottsway.
There are various ways to pay your rent, but the easiest is via Direct Debit or by using our My Cottsway customer portal - you can sign up for this from 1 December using the unique customer account number we will send you by post (see more information below).
We will be working to ensure that the switchover for rent payments is as hassle-free as possible for you:
Cash
Cottsway does not have facilities to receive cash payments for rent or other charges.
However, we can support you in opening a bank account or talk to you about different ways to pay depending on your personal circumstances. Please call us if you need to discuss this.
My Cottsway customer portal
You can use this to view your rent balance, payment history and make payments online 24/7. You will need your new Cottsway customer account number to register. This is shown beneath your name on your new Cottsway rent card which you should receive in the post by 1 December 2023.
My Cottsway is also available to use as an app on smartphones via App Store and Google Play.
To find out more and register after 1 December, once you have received your customer account number, see: My Cottsway
Your rent payments will not change at this time. Like all housing associations, we review rents annually. This process begins in September and follows Government guidelines, based on the September Consumer Price Index (CPI). Cirencester Housing followed this same process and the percentage rent increase has been applied in the same way by both housing associations.
We will write to all customers in early 2024 to let you know the outcome of the current rent review for 2024-25. The financial year runs from the beginning of April to the end of March, so any increase in rent will be applied from the start of April 2024 and we will write to you again confirming your new payment amount before that date.
Any services charges that you pay will also stay the same at this time. These charges are also reviewed annually and we will consult with you when the next annual review takes place.
After 1 December, when we become responsible for your home and services, please get in touch as soon as possible if you find yourself struggling to pay your rent. We are here to help.
For more information, see: Money advice and help
From 1 December, Cottsway will be responsible for all repairs and maintenance at rented properties. We will be picking up on any outstanding repair requests that Cirencester Housing has been unable to complete and will be in touch with you as soon as possible if this applies to you.
To request a repair, please contact our customer services team via the Cottsway website using live chat, by completing an online form, by email or by phone. The team are very experienced at logging repairs, diagnosing what priority should be given to a repair, and allocating the repair to an appropriate contractor who will then contact you to schedule an appointment.
The response times you can expect for more repairs are based on whether they are classified as an:
For more information, see: Repairs and maintenance
Yes, from 1 December 2023. This decision was mutually agreed with NKS. The new contractor will be A1 Maintenance – some of you may be familiar with them already as they have provided some services for Cirencester Housing in the past.
John Knowles & Son will continue to provide annual gas service checks.
Cirencester Grounds Maintenance and communal cleaning contractor A1 Maintenance will continue to provide these services - if you receive them - for the foreseeable future.
We will let you know in advance if we ever need to change any of the contractors that provide services to you on our behalf.
We will honour the property investment plan announced by Cirencester Housing in April 2023.
We have an assets team to help us plan for other on-going maintenance work to our homes. They carry out stock condition surveys and will be in touch to get to know your home (and you).
Cottsway is committed to carry out additional works that we believe are in the best interest of you and your home. When it comes to key components, such as a kitchen or bathroom, these have an expected lifecycle and we schedule replacements using due dates held on record, and these due dates are checked and updated during surveys.
We will always keep you updated on any planned maintenance to your home.
For more information, see: Planned maintenance
We will be continuing to use the same contractor to provide these service.
We will let you know if there are going to be any major changes to your cleaning service at any time in the future.
For more information on the standards you can expect, please see: Communal areas and cleaning
We hope you are very happy in your home, but we realise that issues can sometimes be caused by unreasonable behaviour. We expect our customers to behave respectfully and we are committed to resolving issues quickly and fairly if it does become an issue.
We will become responsible for providing services to you from 1 December 2023. To find out more about our approach to ASB and the ways to report this, see: Anti-social behaviour
We want to deliver the most effective services for you and we are reviewing how estate inspections will run. We will contact you to let you know and, once the details are finalised, we will publish dates for inspections on our website: Estate inspections
No. The local housing registers are managed by the local authority, so this change will not impact on your position on the housing waiting list.
Yes, as a mutual exchange can happen with any social landlord or local authority across the country.
Cirencester Housing remains responsible for your home and services until 1 December 2023, so please continue to contact them in the usual way until this time.
After 1 December, our customer services team will be your first point of contact and they will always try to deal with your enquiry as quickly as possible.
There are a variety of ways that you can contact us and we will respond to anything that is urgent within 24 hours.
In-person meetings will still be available and wherever possible our team members will visit you in your home, or another agreed location.
We will be continuing an arrangement to keep the Cirencester Housing office for a short time after the transfer, but this won’t be open on a day-to-day basis as we are experienced at responding to enquiries online, by phone and in person via home visits. We are confident this is best for everyone.
For more information about the different ways to get in touch, see: Contact us
We value your views and want you to be able to tell us when we are doing something well, or where we need to improve.
There will be various ways for you to get involved and have your say - from taking part in quarterly customer satisfaction surveys to sharing your feedback after you’ve received a service such as a repair, or by being more hands on and joining or assisting Cottsway’s Customer Scrutiny Group or Procurement Group.
Alternatively, you could simply give your feedback by getting in touch with us - all customer feedback is reviewed by one of our managers and any compliments and complaints are reviewed by our service managers.
We publish the results of quarterly surveys to keep you informed about what our customers are telling us. To find these and for more information, see: Our customer feedback
To find out more about how we deal with complaints, see: Complain or give feedback
Once you become a Cottsway customer on 1 December 2023, would you like to:
If so, our Scrutiny Group is looking for new members to join them and would love to hear from you.
For more information, see: Join our Scrutiny Group
From 1 December, you will be able to sign up to our customer portal to view your rent balance and payment history, make payments, set up Direct Debits and update your contact details online 24/7.
You will need your customer account number to register - this can be found beneath your name on your new rent card which is being sent to you by post in late November.
My Cottsway is also available to download on your smartphone as an app from the App Store and Google Play.
We are currently working to make improvements to My Cottsway to introduce more services to help you manage your tenancy, so make sure you’re registered.
Visit: Register for My Cottsway
During the first 3 months after the transfer happens on 1 December 2023, we will:
During spring / summer 2024, we will:
We will also:
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