Thousands of people in the South West are enjoying a higher standard of housing, thanks to the strong partnership between Solon South West Housing Association and property maintenance specialist, Novus Property Solutions.
Solon is an independent charitable housing association with more than 1300 homes, mainly in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. It takes great pride in delivering high quality, well maintained homes for its residents and the service Novus provides is an essential part of its commitment to creating homes that people feel safe and comfortable in.
The contract, set to be decade-long, is worth around £600,000 per year and entails Novus providing 24-hour, year-round reactive repair services to occupied and void homes owned by the housing association. The contract was awarded to Novus in 2012 and the extension until 2022 is testament to the work that the property maintenance specialist has completed in the past five years.
Works carried out as part of the contract vary from general reactive jobs such as unblocking drains, fixing electrical failures and water leaks and securing broken windows or doors, to routine planned work including void maintenance. The team from Novus’ Bristol office currently completes over 62 reactive jobs and up to eight planned jobs and void work per week, while its out-of-hours service provides tenants with reassurance that their properties are covered year-round through a call-out rota.
Together Novus and Solon are able to guarantee all emergency repairs are carried out within 24 hours, urgent repairs within five days and routine maintenance work within 20 days of being reported. In addition, Novus ensures that all works to the void properties, including all relevant electrical tests, are completed within a maximum period of 18 days.
On top of contractual work over the last five years, Novus has also organised numerous community events designed to give something back to Solon residents as part of its ongoing partnership. Most recently, Novus held six resident consultation events over Easter, which included a barbeque, Easter egg hunt and refreshments from an ice cream van, at locations across the South West counties where Solon operates.
Joe Payne, operations manager from Novus said: “It was crucial that our office staff built a strong working relationship with Solon, in order to integrate the two teams and ensure residents had confidence in our work. The extension of the contract highlights the great working relationship that we’ve forged over the years.
“As a responsible business, it’s important for us not only to build trust with both Solon and residents but also the wider community, which is why we readily support Solon with community events.”
For more information about Novus Property Solutions please visit www.novussolutions.co.uk
