Here’s what the national standard tells us we must do:

We must give you information about how we allocate our houses, the rent we charge and how long we rent them for. We must show you how we make the best use of available housing and how we take into account the local authority’s housing plans. We must show you that we have a clear decision making and appeals process.

We must charge rents according to what our regulatory body says. We must meet all statutory and legal requirements with regard to tenancy agreements.

Rent and service charges

The offers – after listening to you this is what we are doing to meet this standard

• We will help you fill in your housing benefit forms
• We will send you rent statements every three months
• We will give you accurate information when you need it
• We will give you advice at the start of your tenancy to prevent you getting into arrears
• We will give you a choice of payment methods that includes direct debit, allpay.net swipe card, online and cheque
• We will help you keep your payments up to date
• We will give you a payment plan if you are in arrears
• We will refer you to a debt or benefits advisory service, or signpost you to other services, if you need help
• We will give you notice if we plan to take legal action to recover debt if you don’t pay your rent or service charges
• We will make an agreement with you to pay the money you owe before we take legal action
• We will possess your home for rent arrears as a last resort

Empty properties

The offers

• We will come with you to view the property to see if it is suitable for you
• We will change the locks and give you three sets of keys when you move in
• We will give you a list of work that has been done and work that may be need to be done once you move in
• We will help you if your new home needs decorating
• We will give you a home that is safe, clean and in good repair
• We will only allow homes to be empty for a minimum amount of time
• We will give you a welcome pack about your new home and your rights and responsibilities as a Catalyst resident

Moving home

The offers

• We will help you settle in to your new home
• We will let and allocate our homes fairly and publish details of how we do this
• We will give transfer applicants a guide to our transfer scheme
• We will let you know about all your housing options
• We will give you information about how we re-let our homes if you ask us for it
• We will support you with re-housing, if necessary referring you to other agencies
• We will ask other housing organisations to help you with re-housing if we don’t have property in the area you want to move to
• We will let you know about services in your local area
• We will visit you within ten working days of you asking for a transfer, if necessary, to assess your circumstances
• We will pass information you provide on a medical assessment form to our independent medical expert to decide what type of accommodation is best for you
• We will process your transfer application within ten working days
• We will give you a written decision within six weeks of you applying to swap your home with another resident
• We will review the details of residents on the transfer list at least every two years