Also at Wimbledon our lift received its annual service & passed with flying colours as did our smoke alarm & fire equipment that have received the all clear for the next 12 months. EDF also outdid themselves in terms of customer care informing me that our communal electric meter needed replacing as it had reached the end of its cycle, they called the next day to replace it & have advised me the new model will last 20 years before needing renewal, best of all this service was totally free of charge!!

On a sadder note we will shortly be saying farewell to one of our north London residents who has decided to enter a residential home because of declining health and he will be sadly missed by staff and neighbours .

My job involves dealing with responsive repair issues as they arise in individual flats, planning ahead for long-term major works on our blocks and just about anything else that rears its head in relation to the bricks and mortar of our properties. This can be surprisingly varied as I discovered today when what started out as a minor leak on a radiator in a flat at our Arnos Grove site turned into a major expedition with the plumber into the loft space to examine the water tanks, heating and plumbing pipes to trace the source of the problem. Once the problem was located he fixed it, but not before we both got covered in dust, dirt & goodness knows what else from the loft. On the plus side it was interesting to note that the loft already has significant insulation installed (to keep the heat in & the cold out) which I hadn’t found documented in the files & which our resident’s benefit from in terms of lower heating bills.

Next up was a meeting with an energy assessor to inspect one of our vacant properties to provide us with an Energy Performance Certificate on the flat.  Since 1 October this year it is now compulsory for all landlords to have a certificate for each vacant flat that it lets out. This flat has just had a brand new boiler fitted and already has double glazing so I expect the rating to be average or above in terms of efficiency. In fact when he emailed me the report later that afternoon it had scored 61 (on a scale of 0 to 100) which was better than I had anticipated and he has included a couple of further energy saving tips that I can pass on to the new tenant when he moves in.

Before leaving the site the Warden asked me to have a look at one of the other tenant’s bathroom that has developed a small, but unsightly mould growth problem. In this instance the cause is linked to the extractor fan that clearly needs a service together with a tenant who doesn’t like to ventilate the bathroom ie open the window, after having a hot steamy bath. There’s nowhere for the steam to escape so it condenses on the ceiling eventually spawning mould (horrible to look at, but harmless). I’ve asked our contractor to service the fan and remove the mould and treat with an anti-fungicidal wash that helps prevent regrowth which should do the trick.

Away from the practical side of property is the bureaucratic side, I spent the afternoon processing a joint tenancy to a sole tenancy for a flat at our Grove Park site where the husband of the couple has sadly passed away. Under the 1988 Housing Act the surviving partner automatically “succeeds” to the sole tenancy, it’s purely a paper pushing exercise for the landlord to make sure that our records reflect the change in tenancy and that our Finance Department know to amend their records. However, a letter in a prescribed format is required to go to the tenant for their own records which is always tricky given the circumstances, but at least puts the tenant’s mind at rest that they don’t have to worry about any issues to do with their home.

I’d just finished with that when I was notified about another recent death in the same block. This time the tenant was living alone so the tenancy will be terminated by the next-of-kin or executor of the will giving 28 days notice. This means that I now have to line up contractors to be ready to go in and do whatever works are needed to relet the flat & get a EPC for this property. Given the scarcity of good accommodation for the elderly its no surprise that we’ve already got a possible candidate lined up for the flat.