February 2020 update

Stormy times

Storms Ciara and Dennis have wreaked havoc across the UK and everyone in the property insurance industry is pretty busy. According to the press the storms will cost the UK insurance industry almost £1bn.

Here at MA Group we have been working hard to support our insurance clients and their customers – our Virtus surveyors have been out validating and surveying properties around the clock (some even cancelled their holidays!), our Revival teams are busy drying out properties and MA Assist staff have been clearing the decks ready for the storm reinstatement works to come in.

We have considerable experience in dealing with a surge and our staff are working evenings and weekends to stay on top of the work. Thank you to all our staff and suppliers for their efforts so far.

Annual Awards Lunch

We will be hosting our inaugural MA Group Annual Awards Lunch on 15th October 2020 at the Chartered Accountants Hall in the City of London. We will be celebrating the best of property services across the MA Group with a slap up lunch, lots of networking, an entertaining and famous guest speaker and awards for the best performing suppliers, staff and branches across the group.

As a result we will not be announcing a Supplier or Surveyor of the Year Award for 2019 right now. We will announce those winners at the Awards Lunch based on performance for the twelve months to the end of June. At the lunch each of our trading businesses will be presenting awards for best supplier, best project or customer service, unsung hero and an employee MAD award.

If you would like to find out more about the lunch, or would like to reserve your place, please contact Sally-Ann Johnson.

MA Group MAD Awards

The MAD Award winner for January was Phillippa Gutierrez in our Aylesbury Control Centre.

Phillippa received glowing praise from a client:

“I just want to thank you for sorting the issue with the guttering this morning. I know I called you yesterday afternoon a bit angry, but I do appreciate your help on this one. The customer is very happy, which is a great thing”

Well done Phillippa.

NHCC

Now that “Brexit is done”, there is renewed focus by the Government on house builders’ customer care and the New Homes Ombudsman. Details of the plans to appoint an Ombudsman were outlined by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick in the House of Commons this week.

The New Homes Ombudsman, which was promised in the Queen’s Speech last year, will be expected to take “swift action” to resolve problems. It will be tasked with resolving issues like faulty wiring, encountered by buyers of new homes. Homebuilders will be forced to sign up to the Ombudsman register.

This renewed focus comes shortly after the NHR Annual Report was published. The survey said that only 66% of new home owners are satisfied with the condition of the home when they move in and the overall quality of build. It also states that 89% of homebuyers experience snags or defects and only 55% of customers are satisfied with the service from their builder or developer after they had moved in.

To find out more about the services that NHCC can offer all house builders, housing associations and build to rent organisations facing these challenges please contact James Bush.

Staff news

We are delighted to welcome Louisa Major to the MA Group. She has joined us as our new Operations Director. Reporting to Jorge Gonzalo she is responsible for the day-to-day operations across the group for our Insurance Services businesses – MA Assist, Revival and Virtus.

Louisa has over 25 years of experience in operations and insurance so we are thrilled to have her on board.

We also welcome back Tim Hudson to the MA Group. Tim is heading up our Proposition and Support team.

Also reporting to Jorge Gonzalo he is responsible for project planning and implementation, IT support, MI and compliance. He will be assisting Louisa and Jorge in ensuring best practices are maintained across the group.

Congratulations to James Tickner in the Aylesbury Control Centre for passing his probation.

Save the dates!

The next MA Group Charity Golf Day and Dinner will be held on  Thursday 4th June 2020 at Magnolia Park. Please put the date in your calendars. More information will be available very soon, but if you want to register please email Sally-Ann Johnson.

As mentioned earlier in this update the inaugural MA Group Awards Lunch will take place in London. Please put the date of Thursday 15th October 2020 in your diaries now.