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Landlord Connect terms of reference

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Introduction

This terms of reference is designed to ensure all members of our live forum events and forum community chat rooms have a positive and productive experience. By following these best practices and guidelines, you can contribute to a respectful, informative, and collaborative space.

Helpful Links

Purpose of the forum

The live forum events and forum communities are an opportunity to create a closer relationship with the Housing Ombudsman by hearing latest updates, sharing experiences and insights, as well as networking with other professionals. The goal of these forums is to create a supportive and respectful environment for learning and collaboration.

Our forum events and forum communities also provide an opportunity for member landlords to get involved in the development of our service. This includes early sighting of new initiatives to help improves processes and policies, as well as feed into guidance to ensure our work helps landlords prevent complaints.

Membership

The forums are made up of landlords that are members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. Up to 2 people per member landlord can register per session to be part of the digital and landlord forums.

Remit and responsibilities

The forum events and forum communities will meet online via Zoom. Times may vary, but the sessions will last two hours or two and half hours. Forums will be held under Chatham House rules, which means the discussions may be referred to by members of the Housing Ombudsman Service, but individual contributions will not be named.

Frequency and notice of meetings

The forum events will be held twice a year at first, but this may increase if needed. Each live session will last 1.5 hours. Invitations will be sent via our email service 3 months before with a joining link that the members can use to register to join.

Forums will be held in 3 categories:

  • landlords with more than 1,000 homes
  • landlords with less than 1,000 homes
  • local authorities

The agenda for the meetings will be circulated at least 3 weeks before. Following the meetings, and will include the changes we have made or will make following feedback.

Administration

  1. Communication with members will be through our member landlord newsletter or directly via zoom.
  2. Auto captions will be provided during meetings and a full transcript is available.
  3. Unacceptable language will not be allowed, and you may be removed from a meeting if this occurs.