[William Clemmey]

Dear Sally
As the person who ran the webinar I hope I can be of help

The webinar is on the Almshouse Association website under
Maximising the WMC through Service Charges – November 2024
webinar recording
It has the link to the paper explaining what you can include labelled as pdf
It also has our Service Charge spreadsheet showing what you can include and which you can use to calculate the service charge. It also includes worked examples for our 5 almshouses see
excel spreadsheet – referred to in webinar

I am happy to send you these papers and also to chat about implementing the Service Charge

Here is the summary of what you can include and maintenance is one of those criteria. You can put the figures from last year into the spreadsheet plus a n amount for inflation. Then for next year you check whether or not you are in deficit or surplus. If a surplus then you can reduce the next year’s budget by theat amount for residents. If in deficit then they need to be charged more

Aerials
Asbestos survey / inspections and remedial work
Audit Fees
Bins and Rubbish
Boiler Servicing
Building Insurance
Boiler Insurance
Caretaking – scheme managers = 25%
Other staff costs – Chief/Clerk/Finance officer = 15%
CCTV
Communal Areas Electric
Communal Areas Gas
Communal signage
Communal telephone (lift)
Concierge (access and monitoring)
Contract servicing – fire safety
Contract cleaning
Contracted works – paths, parking, gardening equip
Controlled door entry – costs of repair and maintainenance
Electrical maintenance – inc inspections
Gas maintenance – inc inspections
Fire alarm test and maintenance
Communal areas – furniture, white goods, décor
Gardening and Grounds Maintenance
Laundry Facilities
Lift maintenance and repairs
Lighting – communal inc lightbulbs
Management Fee (12% of WMC at 95% occupancy)
PAT testing
Pest control
Routine Maintenance
Void costs – Actual 2022/23
Water testing and hygiene
Water pump and sewerage
Window Cleaning
WIFI – Monthly charges
Stair Lifts
Health and safety –
Gardener/Handyman
Hope that helps

William Clemmey
chiefofficer@municipal-charities.org.uk 07922508913

[William Clemmey]

We use Google Drive and each trustee has a Google email @municipal-charities.org.uk
It works well and all of our documents are stored there and can be accessed by staff and trustees (some are only for trustees)
Our minutes and agendas contain links to all of the documents to be discussed and they link to the Google Drive
Its a great system and once mastered is and excellent way forward
William Clemmey

[William Clemmey]

We use Burgis and Bullock in Leamington Spa

[William Clemmey]

Tina
Please can you email me with numbers and your view on how it is working having residents as trustees as I would like to broach the subject with our trustees
Many thanks
William Clemmey
Chief Officer Municipal Charities
chiefofficer@municipal-charities.org.uk

[William Clemmey]

We converted to becoming a CIO in 2022 (see previous posting on this forum)
Very happy to supply copies of our CIO constitution and a checklist for incorporation and other materials such as TUPE of staff, the need for a new bank account, if you a re a Registered Provider the need to reregister and obtain permission from Homes England to transfer the properties to the CIO if you have received a grant from them or their predecessors;

We can provide an example of a transfer deed -transferring all of the assets and liabilities from the old charity to the CIO. You will also need to get Section 105 dispensation to Charity Commission due to the conflict of interest since most of your trustees will be the same

Its well worth doing and will attract more trustees since they gain the limited liability. A CIO is much better than a Company limited by Guarantee due to not having to report to both Companies House and the Charity Commission

Happy to supply copies of documents or chat
William Clemmey 07922508913
chiefofficer@municipal-charities.org.uk

[William Clemmey]

We have a resident on our Properties Committee and it works well – she has a lot of skills having spent her life working on historic buildings.

We have another resident who is interested in becoming a trustee and is a trained accountant which meets one of our trustees skills gaps.
All trustees sign confidentiality agreements so I dont see it being a problem having a resident as a trustee. We are trying to move away from engaging trustees in the day to day joys of residents lives and they are instead involved in the strategic decisions about redecorating a residents home rather than whether they are in hospital or not.
When running youth charities I would aim for 25% young people on the Board so I dont see why it cannot be the same for Almshouses.

William Clemmey
chiefofficer@municpal-charities.org.uk

[William Clemmey]

Under the policy we have with Grouts its £250000 management protection policy.
However we appear to have covered this 5 times as we have 5 separate policies – I am trying t sort this out.
I have always thought that Trustees insurance is a waste of money if your charity is run well
William Clemmey
Chief Officer@municipal-charities.org.uk

[William Clemmey]

We have a Scheme Manager rather than a warden and also an operations Manager so we cover holidays. Also our Handymen could take calls if needed. We give tradesmen access to resident’s keybox numbers (with their permission)
Having our own handymen has certainly reduced our maintenance costs and improved our satisfaction rating with residents

William Clemmey
Chiefofficer@municipal-charities.org.uk

[William Clemmey]

Yes we are registered with them for the Heating Network at two of our properties which have heating networks
We received a discount as a result when there were grants to individual householders

William Clemmey
chiefofficer@municipal-charities.org.uk

[William Clemmey]

Definitely reccomend them for friendliness and helpfulness. Also good quotations – hence we have moved our boiler policy across and will move lift next year
Once our current 5 year contract via Grouts ends we will be obtaining a comparative quotation from Brown and Brown
William Clemmey

[William Clemmey]

Emails from the Housing Ombudsman do come across as abrupt and just giving a week to action. They are however, open to delays if you respond to them.
Initially we were in trouble for not completing a Performance Compliance review which we put together and put onto the website.
Then over Christmas they asked why we had not also submitted our Housing Ombudsman Complaints self assessment. We had fortunately completed this 24 page document last March so were able to ask for a delay and then put it onto our website and we are now compliant.
This year we have until the end of September to submit all the updated documentation which means that it can go through our committees.
The irony is that we do not receive any complaints.

[William Clemmey]

Trevor,
As Debbie says the report needs to be signed off by your Board of Trustees

Also do remember to put the report onto your website along with your complaints policy and also your Housing Ombudsman Complaints self assessment document which details how you will respond to the Complaints policy (all 27 pages of it) We got caught out in not having this document on our website even though we had produced it eight months before internally
All on our website now if you want to check or borrow https://municipal-charities.org.uk/policies/
William Clemmey
chiefofficer@municipal-charities.org.uk

[William Clemmey]

We use Grouts Insurance at present for most of our insurance but get comparisons from zHigos ( now Browns) and use them for boiler Insurance
William Clemmey
Chiefofficer@municipal-charities.org.uk

[William Clemmey]

Elaine
We discovered from another Almshouse who had had a complaint from their resident that got raised with the Housing Ombudsman that we needed a Complaints policy on our website so you can see it here
https://municipal-charities.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Complaints-policy-and-procedure-March-2024-.docx.pdf
also our complaints form
https://municipal-charities.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Municipal-Charities-Complaints-leaflet-March-2024.docx.pdf

Then in July we received an email stating we had not complied with having our annual retrun sent to them by 30 June – which sadly we were not even aware was needed
We have now produced this – it includes our Board’s response – see
https://municipal-charities.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Annual-Complaint-Performance-and-service-improvement-report-June-2024-Google-Docs.pdf

We would be happy to send you our 26 page response to the Housing Ombudsman self assessment form – this link may work
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fnGhwQCiOcQzCPCO4tzsnQk7qeLknoWE/edit#heading=h.chfb9ydpswpw

If you need anything else then do get in touch
William Clemmey chiefofficer@municipal-charities.org.uk

[Author]

Posts