A tenant has been getting in and out of the bath by holding the radiator for four months. She is not sure whether she asks the landlord, the council or her doctor, so she has not asked anybody.
Adaptation requests reach a landlord late because the route is not obvious, and by then the situation is worse than it needed to be.
The checklist
These are the things a tenant needs to understand before they will ask.
1. Who to ask first
Whether the request goes to the landlord, the local authority or a health professional, and what happens if a tenant contacts the wrong one. Being explicit that a request in the wrong place will be redirected rather than refused removes a real barrier.
2. What an assessment involves
Who visits, how long it takes, what they look at and whether the tenant needs anyone with them. People imagine a test they might fail.
3. The difference between minor and major works
Grab rails and rails are usually quick. A level access shower or a ramp is a project with funding and approvals. Publishing the two routes, with separate timescales, stops a tenant waiting for a rail as though it were a bathroom.
4. Honest timescales for each
A stated range for minor works and a realistic one for major works, including the assessment and funding stages. Optimistic figures create chasing that consumes more staff time than the works.
5. How funding works
What the landlord pays for, what a grant covers, whether there is any means testing and who applies. This is the stage tenants find most opaque and where most requests stall.
6. What happens while waiting
Temporary equipment, interim measures or other support. Someone waiting nine months for a bathroom needs something in the meantime, and knowing that is available changes their experience entirely.
7. What is not possible
Some properties cannot take some adaptations, and sometimes rehousing is the better route. Saying so honestly, with what happens instead, is kinder than an application that quietly goes nowhere.
8. Whether it affects the tenancy
Tenants worry that asking marks them out, affects their tenancy or means they will be moved. Saying plainly that it does not removes a fear that stops people asking at all.
9. Who does the work and what to expect
Whether the landlord's contractors or a specialist firm, how appointments are made and how long the tenant's home is disrupted.
10. What happens at the end
Whether adaptations are removed when a tenancy ends, whether the tenant is charged and what happens if they move. These questions stop people accepting works they need.
11. Route urgent situations properly
Someone who cannot get out of bed, cannot wash or is at immediate risk of falling needs an urgent route, not a standard application, and the website must say how to reach it.
12. Keep it alongside the routine work
Most contact remains repairs and tenancy, as covered in repair request and tenancy questions for housing associations and rent, moving and application questions tenants ask.
13. Make the answers reachable
Accessibility information should itself be easy to use, which is the point of an accessible website assistant, and the practical detail matters as much as in directions, parking and accessibility questions for clinics.
Getting started
Publish the request route, assessment, funding, timescales and interim support, then capture requests at any hour and send urgent cases to a person. SpideyChat for property managers answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.