Stock Condition Surveys For Six Town Housing

Six Town Housing is an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) set up in April 2005 to manage Council homes on behalf of Bury Council. Since the formation of the ALMO, pt has provided all manner of survey information to enable the ALMO to better manage their homes.

Over the past 3 years pt have carried out over 4,500 condition surveys (comprising maintenance assessments, Decent Homes assessments, Energy Efficiency assessments and Asbestos Type 1 assessments). In conjunction with the condition surveys, Pre Entry Surveys have also been carried out to enable the ALMO to create planned maintenance programmes to directly target Decent Homes problems. Following on from this ongoing survey work, 250 roofs have been subject to detailed inspection to rectify an inherent defect within a particular type of construction.

In the past year, 800 blocks have been inspected to assess whether they require Fire Risk Assessments (FRA) to comply with the Regulatory Reform Order 2005. Approximately 550 were discounted since there was no communal area within the blocks. The remaining 250 have now all been inspected. In addition to Fire Risk Assessments, a Disabled Access Audit was carried out at each block, together with an Asbestos Type 2 survey.

With the new requirement to provide an Energy Performance Certificate to each new tenant, every void property is inspected by a qualified Domestic Energy Assessor from pt to carry out this assessment. Whilst in the property the surveyor also carries out an enhanced Asbestos Type 1 survey, taking advantage of the fact that the property is empty to provide the ALMO with more comprehensive survey than would be possible in a tenanted property. The multiple survey approach also helps the planet by reducing travel and fuel consumption.