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Welcome to your February news from Paradigm
Your rent letters
You will shortly be receiving or should have received, a letter about the increase in your rent for the coming year. Please watch the below video that explains why, and what to do if you are worried about this increase. Find out more about your rent increase here.
We're here to help
We’re here to support you
We have a dedicated team who can help. If you’re worried about paying your rent, please call us on 0300 303 1010. We can:
Signpost you to support services
Set up payment plans
Make sure you are claiming benefits you are entitled to.
Please talk to us, we’re here to help.
Our Support Hub
We know many people are worried about money due to the cost of living crisis. There's lots of useful information and links in our Support Hub about:
🌟 Your wellbeing
💰 Your finances
🍔 Food
👨👩👦 Your family
💼 Support into work
Citizens Advice
Your local Citizens Advice is also a great service that can help with everything from claiming benefits to cost of living advice. Take a look at their website for more information:
Guidance around subletting your home
Did you know you need permission before renting out your home?
If you own 100% of your home, and you're thinking about renting it out, there are some things you need to know. Please contact us so we can talk it through with you and explain the possible risks and obligations.
Generally, shared owners are not allowed to sublet. However we appreciate there are sometimes exceptional circumstances, so please talk to us, we will deal with each request individually.
As a shared owner, you're not allowed to "host" or rent out your home on websites like Airbnb or Booking.com, either in full or in part - your lease doesn't allow you to use your home for business
purposes.
If you have any questions about this, please do call us on 0300 303 1010, we're here to help!
Testing, testing
Thank you to everyone who responded when we asked for customers to test our new online customer portal.
We were delighted to run a session with five customers, who were led through the new system, providing feedback for us to make improvements.
The new portal will replace our current myparadigm system (more information coming soon!)
Mrs Smith, who attended the session, said:
“The training was really good. It was lucky that we all brought in a different device, so you could see the glitches. Well done on some great interactive training, the way to go for the future! I would recommend the new site to other customers once it’s live.”
We are now looking through additional feedback from customers who tested the system from home, so we’ll update you on progress in the next newsletter!
How to get involved with Paradigm
Are you interested in becoming involved in opportunities like this in the future? You can volunteer to be one of our ‘involved customers’ by completing this online form.
You can also visit our website to learn more about the involvement opportunities available or contact a member of the team:
Please email Customer.Involvement@ParadigmHousing.co.uk or call us on 0300 303 1010.
Your voice and input are essential in helping us to create and develop services that work for you, and we want as many of you to be involved to ensure that the views we are capturing, reflect the needs and requirements of all our customers.
You said, we did
You said: you were spending time reporting communal repairs in blocks, only to find out they had already been reported.
We did: We now send out texts to all customers in a block if a communal repair is reported so you don't need to contact us if someone else already has. We will also keep you updated about progress with the repair.
Ask Ava
Hi Ava,
I can hear loud banging music almost constantly, and it goes on into the night. I also think this neighbour is drug dealing. How can you help?
We will start by really understanding the issues you’re experiencing, including when and how often it happens and if you’ve already tried speaking to your neighbour about the music.
We will explain to you what we will do next with an action plan, and give you an idea of the type of action we can and can’t take – this usually depends on how serious the issues are, for example, if there is illegal activity.
It also depends on how much evidence there is, including neighbours being willing to provide evidence with diary sheets, or if it is very serious and we need to take legal action, being prepared to give evidence in court.
After we’ve spoken to you, we would usually contact the police to understand if they are aware of any drug-dealing concerns at the property. Depending on what the police are aware of, we might arrange a joint visit with them to speak to the neighbour and then follow up with a letter to the neighbour, which is the start of our formal process if we then need to take legal action.
If it appears to be an issue between you and your neighbour then we always recommend mediation - the mediators will discuss with each neighbour the issues, and then help agree together how to live next to each other going forward.
You will need to:
We will also remind you that you need to report any suspected illegal activity, such as drug dealing. This can be done anonymously. The police will need to discuss the reports with you but will keep your identity confidential. Reports can be made using 101 or reporting online if a non-emergency. Always dial 999 if you feel you are at risk of harm or, in any danger.
We will also ask you to record noise disturbances using the Noise App and submit these (in confidence) to Paradigm for review.
We will ask you to keep a diary record of any incidents, with police report reference numbers, so that we can continue to identify what if any, action we can take. We will tell you what action we are taking, and also if we are unable to take any action, so you are really clear about what is happening.
Join our team
We've got a whole host of vacancies available that might be the perfect fit for you. From Roofer to Fire Risk Assessor, check out our roles here.
We're more than a housing association. We’re a growing business committed to delivering excellent services to customers and building a great place to work, where everyone can belong.
If you’d like to make a positive impact on the lives of our customers, while developing your career in a professional and supportive environment, we’d love to hear from you!
