DHA Annual Report 2012

Property and tenancy management

Overview

The property and tenancy business line, Property and Tenancy Services, accepts completed houses from DHA’s Property Provisioning Group. They are responsible for maintaining the homes, allocating the homes to Defence members, providing support to the family throughout their tenancy and assisting them when they vacate the home at the end of their tenancy. It is the customer-facing side of DHA’s business with more than 300 staff in regional offices offering these services. This includes interacting on a daily basis with current Defence tenants and talking to those on posting regarding housing in their new posting locality. This business also manages the payment of Rent Allowance (RA) to Members With Dependants and Members Without Dependants who will be accommodated in the private rental market.

While the Property Provisioning Group focus is on maintaining a supply of houses in response to the Defence Housing Forecast—by constructing new houses on DHA-owned land, acquiring existing houses and by renewing leases—Property and Tenancy Services is focused on matching the totality of the Defence housing portfolio to the demand for those houses as Defence families move on posting, or as their personal circumstances and housing needs change.

Defence Housing Forecast

The Defence Housing Forecast (DHF) is the starting point for the property and tenancy business as it is for property provisioning. It tells DHA how many Members With Dependants are expected to need accommodation in the next financial year (and the following four years) in terms of numbers, locations and housing classifications. For 2011–12, Defence forecast a requirement for housing for 19,152 Defence members and their families, a 4% increase on the previous year. The point of departure in the preparation of a new DHF is the total number of Defence families in DHA-managed properties and in RA in the current year. Defence then seeks the best available  information from the three Services about changes in the establishment of headquarters, (the number and rank of personnel) formations, units and bases, and of changes in force disposition as a result of the creation of new force elements or changes in the location of existing force elements.

The DHF estimates the proportion of Defence members who will require Defence-funded housing (DHA-managed or RA) as distinct from those who will live in their own homes. The accuracy of the DHF is therefore affected by factors outside the control of Defence and DHA; i.e. the state of residential property markets and the availability of bank finance.

Meeting the Defence demand

In allocating housing, Property and Tenancy Services must manage tenanted, vacant and privately leased-out stock in order to increase the number of Defence families in DHA-managed accommodation. An optimal outcome will maximise the number of available dwelling units during the peak posting period, minimise vacancy at other times by leasing vacant stock privately and minimise the number of Defence families receiving RA. At 30 June 2012, nearly 82% of the total Defence demand was satisfied by DHA-managed housing with the balance in private rental accommodation. The 2011–12 monthly average of Defence families on RA was 17.9% compared to the Corporate Plan figure of 17%.

One reason is the increase in the proportion of Defence members approved for RA following recognition of an interdependent relationship, including de facto relationships. DHA does not have the opportunity to offer its accommodation in these circumstances.

Housing is allocated in accordance with a classification regime under which DHA-managed properties are assigned to one of five rent bands set by Defence in consultation with DHA and updated annually. Rent bands are determined by geographical location with individual houses assigned to a rent band based on their market rent. The system enables Defence members to access housing in accordance with their rank and family-based entitlement.

Managing Defence tenancies

Since 1 October 2009, all Defence tenancies have been in the form of a tenancy agreement between DHA and the Defence member. Prior to October 2009, DHA was an agent of Defence, administering tenancies between the Department and the Defence member. 2011–12 is the second full-year under the new arrangements which continues to work satisfactorily.

Housing Management Centres

Property and Tenancy Services is focused on the particular and ongoing needs of individual Defence families and is sustained by a DHA workforce spread across 18 regional offices; they are each focused on geographical concentrations of Defence units and establishments. Twelve are designated Housing Management Centres (HMCs) and the balance are smaller branch offices. At 30 June 2012, the property and tenancy management business employed around 300 people, or 50% of the DHA workforce, in its regional offices. This staffing provides a physical presence for Defence members seeking advice on housing matters including housing maintenance. DHA also maintains a sophisticated online service to manage these needs.

Responsive maintenance

Responsive maintenance is a critical component of property and tenancy management.
DHA is contracted to provide a quality 24-hour maintenance service and to deliver high levels of tenant satisfaction with that service. To assist in achieving this objective, DHA provides a Maintenance Call Centre (MCC) for receiving and actioning maintenance calls from tenants across Australia. The MCC operates from the DHA office in the Hunter Valley (Newcastle) and provides extended hours coverage. Staff are well trained in the policies and procedures that govern the delivery of maintenance services and can support front-line staff by raising work orders during a property inspection to speed-up the turn around of properties between tenancies. During 2011–12, the MCC received a total of 106,740 calls and made 129,307 outgoing calls.

Contractor management

DHA is responsible to tenants and lessors for the provision of a high quality and responsive maintenance service irrespective of location. To achieve this, DHA has contracts with maintenance service providers in each region. Known as Residential Maintenance Services, the arrangements are supported by sophisticated Contractor Management software (CTM) to assist HMCs to manage some 1,000 individual contractors and to deliver more consistent and timely maintenance support to tenants. In 2011–12, DHA upgraded the CTM software to provide greater functionality and further streamline the allocation of maintenance and the interaction with contractors. A dedicated contract management team has been established to support the HMCs. A major focus of the group is the implementation of control measures to ensure DHA meets its obligations to contractors under the new Work Health and Safety legislation.

Maintenance surveys

DHA measures Defence member satisfaction with customer service, contractor service and overall satisfaction with the maintenance service. Performance with completed and invoiced works remains strong, with 94% of 7,561 surveyed tenants expressing satisfaction with the overall service. Sample sizes in past years ranged from 5,715 to 7,848.

Figure 3: Customer satisfaction with DHA’s maintenance services, 2006–07 to 2011–12

Services Agreement on Housing and Related Matters

DHA’s relationship with Defence is managed under the provisions of the Services Agreement on Housing and Related Matters, a long-term agreement that was renewed on 1 July 2006. Major elements of the Agreement were updated in 2009 to provide for the inclusion of allocations and tenancy management functions which had previously been contracted to DHA under the Relocations Services Agreement. The Services Agreement is currently the subject of a five-year review that will address lessons learned since July 2006 and investigate ways to further rationalise and reduce costs to both parties.