Estate Inspection

What is an estate inspection?

You have told us how important local engagement is, you want to see local solutions to local problems that are affecting your neighbourhood. 

We have listened to your feedback and estate Inspections are a great example of local engagement in action. 

We want all our residents to live in well-managed and well-maintained housing, in an environment that is attractive, safe, and secure where everyone can live free from nuisance, intimidation and harassment. 

One way that we can achieve this is by our Neighbourhood Housing Officers routinely checking the quality of the estates we are responsible for; this is called an estate inspection.  

Get involved  

We want to involve you in these inspections. You bring a crucial, and different, perspective than our teams. We support residents who want to get involved on what to look out for and then can take part in helping us to maintain and improve our estates. If you would like to be involved in future estate inspections, then please contact us at enquiry@incommunities.co.uk  

 

Before we start an estate inspection 

We’ll make sure residents are told about the date and the time well in advance so they can take part, please look out on our website for future estate inspections or on your local community noticeboard, if you have one. 

We will always try and give you at least two weeks’ notice of an estate inspection date. We also invite local partners to attend with us.  

What information is collected during the inspection? 

When we doing an inspections, we monitor the condition of the estate and we are looking out for the following:  

• outstanding repairs to communal areas 
• poorly maintained gardens and boundaries 
• abandoned vehicles on communal land 
• unauthorised parking 
• poor performance of grounds maintenance contractors 
• vandalism and graffiti 
• work required to trees on communal land 
• the condition of the garage areas, allotments and play areas 
• the condition of lighting on estates 
• the existence of pest infestations on communal land; and 
• the cleanliness and condition of bin stores and refuse collection points. 

 

What do you do with the information that you collect? 

We collect the same information for all our estates, this means we can easily compare results and understand what we are doing well, and where we need to do better.  

We also make sure our residents are aware of, and accept, their responsibilities. Such as, the upkeep of their home and their part in keeping the local area in good condition. 

Residents are given the opportunity to influence and participate in decision making relating to estate management. As keeping our estates in good condition creates environments where people choose to live: 

If we do need to make improvements, we agree actions with residents who have taken part and a time when a re-inspection should take place. The inspections are recorded electronically.  

Estate inspection gradings 

We grade each estate inspection into one of three categories as described below: 

• Green - The majority of the checks were good, and no poor standards were found during the inspection. 
• Amber - The majority of the items checked were fair, and no poor standards were found during the inspection. 
• Red - One or more items checked was poor. 

The ratings for each estate inspection are summarised in the checklist below: