Lambeth Living Homeownership Service Re-organisation 

1. Introduction 

The Homeownership Team at Lambeth Living provide services to Leaseholders on behalf of the London Borough of Lambeth.  We have been working to provide improved services to our customers and this has led to a re-organisation of our teams.  The new structure simplifies service delivery and creates teams that will deal with Leasehold process from beginning to end and can work more effectively with other Lambeth Living Teams and with partners and customers.   The re-organisation took place on 10 August 2009.  

2. Key features of the re-organisation 

We have changed the structure into 4 distinct teams: 

• Major Works Charges Team – will deal with the complete process of consulting and charging for major works and large contracts to your home and estates and working closely with the Major Works Team in Housing Technical Services.

 

• Service Charges Team – will deal with calculating, billing and collection of the day to day service charges and working closely with the Area Housing Offices.

 

• Property Sales Team - will deal with Right to Buy applications, Cash Incentive Schemes, shared ownership and with leaseholders wishing to sell their properties.

 

• Lease Services and Business Support Team – will deal with the management of leases and supporting the other Homeownership and wider Lambeth Living Teams.

 

See Annex 1 for structure chart.  Please note however that the existing managers are currently going through a recruitment process for the PO3 and PO4 positions and the outcome is expected soon.  

Our team members will work on an area basis so that we can continue to build knowledge and experience on specific areas.   The area breakdown by team member can be found at Annex 2. 

We have also created a new post of Service Development Manager to improve services provided to customers by the Homeownership Team. 

3. Area Housing Teams and Property Services 

The Area Housing Teams can now deal with enquiries from leaseholders on estate services such as grounds maintenance, block cleaning and anti social behaviour.  

Property Services can deal with leaseholders communal and individual repair requests. 

We are asking customers to direct their enquiries in the first instance to the Lambeth Service Centre (contact details below) however customer facing staff will start to get enquiries direct from the customer and from the Lambeth Service Centre whereas before they would have been routed through Homeownership Services. 

Homeownership Services will continue to deal with enquiries regarding leaseholder accounts, leaseholder charges and lease conditions as well as those things detailed in section 2 above. 

4. Other News from the Homeownership Team 

We are currently dealing with a high number of customer queries generated from issuing the 2009/10 day to day service charge estimates.  We are also dealing with a high number of adjustments to accounts and requests for refunds.  The 2008/09 final accounts are being prepared and we are due to send these out to customers soon and will let you know when this happens.  A number of major works schemes have been completed so we are due to start billing customers for these works soon. 

The Homeownership Team are dedicating Wednesday afternoons each week to training and development.  We will therefore be closed to general enquiries from 1pm onwards on Wednesdays with effect from the 19 August 2009.  

5. Contacting Homeownership services 

You can continue to contact us in a number of ways: 

The Lambeth Service Centre is the first point of call for information and enquiries relating to many of our services, including leasehold services.  You can get advice on all Lambeth Living and Lambeth Council services through the Lambeth Service Centre at Olive Morris House located on Brixton Hill. 

Post: PO Box 41091, London, SW2 1XZ

Telephone:  General enquiries: 020 7926 6000, Leaseholders: 020 7926 6700, Language line: 020 7926 6660, Vulnerable tenants: 020 7926 6270 

Leasehold services has a dedicated email box so you can send emails to:

homeownership@lambethliving.org.uk  Alternatively, you can contact Lambeth Living Direct by writing to Lambeth Living Ltd, Hambrook House, First Floor, Porden Road, London, SW2 5RW

Or phoning: 020 7926 6000 
Or faxing: 020 7926 3706 
Website: www.lambethliving.org.uk  
Email: info@lambethliving.org.uk