What’s happened?

The Regulator of Social Housing has issued a regulatory notice to Accord Housing Association, now trading as GreenSquareAccord, having found it has breached the ‘Home Standard’ in some of the properties owned by Accord.

What does that mean?

As a housing provider, we have a responsibility within this standard to meet all applicable statutory requirements which provide for the health and safety of tenants in their homes. The regulatory notice has been issued because we failed to meet some of these requirements.

How did this come about?

Following the merger, we have been carrying out thorough data record checks and we have found that some properties in the former Accord part of the organisation do not have current assessment certificates for health and safety requirements. We self-reported this to the Regulator of Social Housing.

What went wrong?

During our record checks we discovered that some of the former Accord properties do not have a current asbestos survey, electrical installation condition report or fire risk assessment. It is our responsibility to ensure that these are carried out, and we must keep accurate records of our inspections. We have found that some assessments have not taken place, some have expired, and some have not been recorded properly.

We are genuinely sorry about this breach of standards. We understand that our customers will feel let down by us and we are committed to being open and transparent with you as we work to put this right. Please be assured that the GreenSquareAccord team is already working to correct these mistakes.

Does this affect all GreenSquareAccord customers?

This issue does not affect you if you were a former GreenSquare or Westlea customer.

It does affect some of the former Accord customers and we will contact all those customers whose homes are affected by this.

When will I know if my home is affected?

We have already started working on the properties affected by this. You do not need to contact us, we will be in touch with you if your home is one of the ones we need to assess.

What are you doing to fix the problem?

We have put a programme in place to fix these problems.

Our team of internal and external surveyors and engineers are checking all the properties where we need assurance that assessments are up to date and correct.

Where we find anything that needs fixing, we will arrange for this to be done.

We will issue new certification documents to residents where required.

Our office teams are also working on our recording systems to make sure these problems do not happen again.

How do we know this won’t happen again?

Meeting our landlord health and safety obligations is an absolute priority for GreenSquareAccord. Since merging in April, we have made a lot of changes within the organisation and our new senior leadership team is absolutely committed to this.

If you have any concerns about this information, please email us support@greensquareaccord.co.uk

Information about the Regulator of Social Housing

What is the Regulator of Social Housing?

The Regulator of Social Housing regulates registered providers of social housing; this regulation is to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver homes that meet a range of needs.

What does the Regulator of Social Housing focus on?

The regulator undertakes economic regulation, focusing on governance, financial viability and value for money. It also sets consumer standards – and may take action if these standards are breached and there is a significant risk of serious detriment to tenants or potential tenants.

What is a regulatory notice?

The Regulator of Social Housing publishes assessments on how well registered providers are meeting regulatory standards. These regulatory judgements and regulatory notices are the regulator’s official view of a provider.