Our housing estates are maintained for us by various contractors looking after a range of services, including:

• providing caretaking services
• cleaning communal areas, including windows
• keeping the grounds tidy, including cutting grass and maintaining plant beds
• cleaning the streets within the estate boundaries
• maintaining communal electrics, lighting and door-entry systems
• maintaining lifts, fire-safety equipment and communal TV aerial systems

These services are monitored by various staff, including our housing officers and estate ‘champion’ and volunteer ‘resident inspectors’.

They are kept to a minimum standard as set out in Housemark’s caretaking and cleaning standards [PDF, 5MB].

Our estate champion monitors the maintenance of our estates, coordinates feedback to our contractors, manages the estates caretakers, and works on projects to improve the estates.

Resident inspectors support this by checking the work done by our staff and contractors and letting us know whether it has been done to an acceptable standard.

• If you are willing to volunteer a little time you could become a resident inspector.
• If you are a resident inspector, you can submit our online estate benchmarking form to give us feedback about your estate.

We run a tenant and leaseholder garden competition every year, offering prizes worth over £400 to gardeners of all sorts on our estates.

Building cleaning

We clean communal areas in buildings every week. If your normal cleaning day falls on a bank holiday, the building will be cleaned on a different day that week.

• Report any problems with the cleaning of your building to Goshen at cs@goshenmultiservices.com or 07542 826553.

Communal windows are cleaned every April, August and December, on estates that pay a service charge for this service.

• Report any problems with window cleaning to Hi-Spec at john.landers@hispecservices.co.uk.

Grounds maintenance

We usually cut the grass on our estates from April to September. If necessary we will start earlier in the year or cut again in October.

We tidy and replant plant beds in February, March, October and November.

We trim hedges if needed in early spring and late summer. We avoid doing so from April to August, so we do not disturb nesting birds.

We clear fallen leaves November to December.

If you see an overgrown area or grass on a footpath, use our form to tell us about the problem.

We clean car parks and forecourts on our estates twice each year, and clean the drains every November.

We spread or provide grit to keep the roads and paths safe on our estates safe when needed.

We maintain the trees on our estates along with those around the city.

Bees and wasps

Bees are a protected species that you should not disturb if they make a nest.

We can collect swarms of honey bees if they nest in a tree or building on one of our estates – contact us to arrange this.

We cannot collect any other types of bee, so please check the Wildlife Trust’s guide to honey bees to identify them before you contact us.

If wasps nest on an estate, you will need to contract a pest-control company to remove it.

Neighbourhood clean-up events and estate walkabouts

We hold regular neighbourhood clean-up events at our estates, where we bring recycling bins and skips to help clear communal areas.

• Check the dates of upcoming neighbourhood clean-up events

We also organise regular ‘walkabouts’ with council officers and local councillors to identify and help report local issues and request repairs.

• Check the dates of upcoming estate walkabouts