The Assets team play a vital role in ensuring our homes are safe, well-maintained, and ready for customers to make a home in. They oversee the delivery of key contracts covering repairs, maintenance, damp and mould, and empty homes, keeping everything running smoothly behind the scenes.

Meet Liz Chappell and Liane Cothay, two integral members of the team. Liane, Senior Assets Coordinator, manages much of the team’s administration and keeps the surveyors’ diaries up to date. Liz, Senior Assets Surveyor, leads the surveyors and has oversight of empty homes and expenditures.

While their roles are fast-paced and constantly evolving, one thing never changes: their shared commitment to customers and maintaining seamless inspections, repairs, and strong relationships with colleagues and contractors.

We recently caught up with Liz and Liane to find out more about what a typical day looks like for them.

Juggling a busy week

Liane – “Because of the reactive nature of our work, no two days are the same. We can’t really set our days; our diaries change all the time. There are certain things I have to do each week, but I’m often juggling my diary around.

“We do variations first thing in the morning, in the afternoon and at the end of the day. We have to do these every day because variations are jobs that contractors have been out on and want to close payment on.

“On Fridays, I meet with our contractors, Equans and APS. We go through the oldest work order from the past 3 months to the most recent and update the progress on these.

“A lot of what I do involves spreadsheets, which, to a lot of people, might sound boring, but I enjoy the methodological side of it all. One of the spreadsheets I look at each week is future inspections. This tells me if there should be an inspection and which contractor should be on it. It also checks that the damp and mould inspections are booked within the timeframes on the correct contracts. We have separate contracts for damp and mould and for inspections.

“I work on a monthly spreadsheet to track whether our KPIS (key performance indicators) are allocated correctly.”

Liz – “Each week, I look at voids (empty homes) with our Asset Manager in Operational Delivery, Lucy and Liane. I look through surveys that come through from the surveyors and the costings of the works to make sure they’re right. When a surveyor has gone out to an inspection, we expect the inspection form to be back within 48 hours, and any follow-up work to be recorded.

“My days are also filled with monitoring severe damp and mould cases. I break down costings of void works and assess work variations for approval. I also assess damp and drainage work specifications prior to ordering works, to ensure financial viability.

“I am the backup surveyor; if we’re short on surveyors and their work cannot be shared between other surveyors, I’ll fill in for them.

“We also do agency inspections with our partners. Agency managed homes can be maintained by us or the agency. Once a year, we have to fully inspect all the homes. Our Agency and Contracts Manager, Lindsay Shoesmith, usually rings to book the appointments, and Liane puts it in the surveyor’s diary.

Teamwork

Liz – “Our roles crossover a lot – what one of us can’t pick up, the other one will. We look at complaints together each week and dedicate a day to go through them. These involve investigating issues, speaking with customers, arranging visits, and pulling together accurate responses.

“We look at the customer satisfaction scores that we get through our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) survey programme and contact customers who score us low on maintenance and repairs to find out more about what’s going on and if they need a surveyor or contractor to visit their home.”

Liane – “Liz and I look at the surveyor appointment log each day. The surveyors are assigned to each of the regions where we have homes. We work together to arrange the surveyors’ diaries and swap any appointments around.

“We look at whether they’ve completed the inspection forms, whether the customer has signed it and whether there’s further work required. One of the most important thing about our work is logging everything we do, quotes, inspections, jobs and calls as it’s so important to have evidence and documentation.”

Liz – “It’s a non-stop moving job – I can get around 80 emails a day! Damp and mould is a huge focus for us, especially since the launch of Awaab’s Law. We have to make sure appointments and work is completed within strict timeframes.”

If you’ve spotted damp and mould in your home, let us know straight away.

Liz – “Liane and I work well together and get on really well – if we didn’t have that relationship, it’d be difficult. Although we do different things, we both work systematically together.”

If you need to report a repair in your home or need to move an appointment, you can call us on 0113 386 1000 or email us at hello@leedsfed.com