SECAB Phase 3 – Getting organised

Owners

While we have the law on making decisions binding on a tenement, we will need a way to co-ordinate decisions across the different tenements.

With the contact details for the owners, we will have established a communication network for the owners of each tenement. This communication network will be available for tenements to use for their own purposes. Whether this network will be via email, WhatsApp, social media or by letter is up to each tenement.

What matters is that there will be a way for each tenement group to communicate with each other, share information about decisions to be made with their own owner group, collect the final decision of that group and then share that decision with the other tenements.

For many owners, this will be one of the most useful outcomes of SECAB. Owners always have a communal responsibility for maintaning their tenements. Many owners have experienced trying to get issues fixed. Without a pre-existing owners communication channel, it can take a large amount of time and effort even just to be able to agree on works, let alone organise them.

This has led to some smaller problems in tenements being left unfixed – broken stair lighting, faulty door entry systems and the like. Larger problems with bigger bills end up being the only things getting resolved because they’re the only ones expensive enough to justify the effort, or the assistance of the council.

Residents

There will also be a space for residents to get organised. Using the mailing list, website and social media, it will be possible for residents to begin communicating with one another. The back green presents many opportunities for residents to get together in a way not possible before. The back green is the only public meeting space between the flats where residents could meet for activities or even just a chat.

One of the outputs we will get from the residents’ group is a list of the things they want to do with the space. It is easy for the owners’ group to organise the clearup and maintenance, but we don’t know what the people who live here might actually want to do with their new space.

Do residents want to have more planters for gardening? Do we want more tables and chairs? Do we want to run regular social events?

The more use the space gets by a wider set of residents, the more likely it is the space and the maintenance investment will be a success for the owners. If we focus only on a small subset of the resident community, then the space will be underused, and it will end up falling back into neglect. A space loved by residents is one which will be defended against antisocial behaviour.

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With an organised set of residents and owners, we can finally get to the most important part: Phase 4 – Taking action.