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Consultation on Rent Review in April 2021
The Board of Atrium Homes is seeking the views of all its tenants on options for the rent review which would to take effect from 1 April 2021 and apply to all Atrium properties.
We appreciate this has been a very difficult year for many people and the Board has been mindful of this in considering the rent review.
Our rent review considers a number of factors but in particular the income needed to run the overall business and meet current and future investment plans. In 2020 for example, we completed 27 new units and completed Phase 1 of our major investment programme (HFF21CLS) which we consulted you on in August 2018 and which, over the next few years will see some £15 million spent on our older stock. (https://www.atrium-homes.co.uk/your-home-investment/ )
Whilst the HFF21CLS programme has had to be suspended temporarily due to Government imposed Covid-19 restrictions, we aim to catch up and get it back on schedule as soon as we are permitted. But in order to have the necessary funds to keep these investment plans on track, we consider that we should apply a rent increase to all Atrium properties from 1 April 2021 of 1.8% (October 2020 RPI + 0.5%). This level of increase is the minimum needed to allow us to continue to deliver the HFF21CLS the programme and maintain overall service levels.
As an Atrium customer we’d also like to seek your views on another proposed change that will affect how we use the rent you pay to provide greater consistency for all tenants. At present, for most tenants the cost of landscape maintenance is, like all maintenance, included in the overall rent charge. However, a small minority of tenants pay for some landscape maintenance through a separate additional service charge. We propose to stop applying a separate service charge for landscape maintenance so that all tenants are treated equally. In future, Atrium will meet the costs (estimated at approximately £0.21 per week per property) from its overall rental income. Other services charges for elements such as close cleaning, door entry maintenance and landlord supply would not be affected.
If you wish to express your views on either or both matters, please do so by completing this survey online at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/AHRENT2021 or by emailing your response to info@atrium-homers.co.uk by Friday 22 January 2021 at 12 noon. The final decision on the level of increase will be taken at Atrium’s Board meeting on 26th January 2021.