• We will provide you with a comprehensive Homeowners' Guide when you become a homeowner; this includes information on your rights and obligations, charging and ways of paying your service charge, as well as useful contact numbers.
• We will arrange an induction session for new homeowners' to go through the guide and answer any questions.
• We will issue you an estimated annual service charge by 1 April each year.
• Consult homeowners individually on service contracts that last more than 12 months, and where the individual contribution is expected to be over £250 in line with current government legislation and best practice.
• Hold a homeowners' discussion forum at least once a year.
• Issue credit refunds when applicable to homeowners within six weeks of the application request.
• Offer face-to-face appointments to homeowners within our estate offices at convenient times to provide assistance and support with property enquiries.
• Aim to answer telephone calls within 20 seconds.

Service charges

• We will issue you an actual service charge statement for the previous financial year, within six months of the end of each financial year.
• We will aim to issue an estimated invoice within 12 weeks once a contract for major works is let. The estimate will be adjusted once the final accounts have been prepared and audited and you will be advised of the final amount to pay.
• We will give you a range of payment options by which to pay your annual service charge and Major Works invoices. We aim to send out a statement of account to you on a quarterly basis, so that you are aware of the balance on your account.
• Take early action to help before your arrears get out of hand by advising you in writing if you fall behind with your repayments.
• Visit you at home if we do not hear from you.
• Ask you to clear your arrears straightaway or sign an agreement to make realistic and affordable payments to clear your arrears over a short period of time.
• Offer you advice about claiming benefits and help with debt if you are having money problems. You can also ask us to refer you for independent help with your debts.
• End any store shed, garage, parking space licence and parking permit so that these charges do not add to your service charge arrears.

If you continue not to pay or repeatedly break agreements you can expect us to:

• Warn you before taking further action.
• Contact your mortgage lender (if applicable) and ask them to pay your outstanding arrears.
• Commence proceedings in the court to recover your outstandingarrears. At this point interest, court fees and solicitor's fee will be added to your arrears.

Please see our complaints procedure for disputing your service charges.

Involving you and improving our service

• Carry out a satisfaction survey to measure the level, quality and speed of our service by asking a sample who have used the service what they thought.
• Report back on how well we do in URH newsletters.
• Consider residents' suggestions and complaints in our service development improvements.
• Work with residents to improve our service by holding workshops and testing how easy our information is to understand.
• Test our services against other ALMOs to make sure we compete with the best performing organisations.

To help us deliver a great service, you can help us by:

• Producing relevant documents.
• Turning up on time for appointments.
• Paying your service charge on time.
• Contacting us if you are having difficulty.
• Behaving reasonably towards our staff.