The tenant council in an interview "You notice an enormous hands-on mentality"

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The new tenants' council is full of vigor and actively supports the cross-district interests of HOWOGE tenants. In the interview, the chairman Mathias Voigt talks about the main topics and boundaries of responsibility.

Mr. Voigt, you are a member of the Tenants' Council for the second time – what is different?

You can see a lot of enthusiasm and an enormous hands-on mentality among the new members. The tenant council really wants to take care of all the concerns and inquiries that reach us. The colleagues want to solve everything, every problem is taken care of. In many cases, however, we have to follow the official path and slow down.

Illustrated people, pedestrians and cyclists

Does this mean that the Tenants' Council is not responsible for all inquiries?

As the Tenants' Council, we are responsible for events across the neighborhood, such as new construction projects, structural problems, and communication between tenants and HOWOGE. Neighborhood-related concerns, on the other hand, are the task of the tenant advisory councils. There is an agreement between the tenant advisory councils and the tenant council for this. We don't want to take anyone's work away.

Which topics are you currently addressing in particular?

One topic is the communication between tenants and HOWOGE. Several people often report the same defect, but no one knows about the other. This leads to additional work for HOWOGE, but also to discrepancies on the tenant side because there is no feedback on the processing status. The HOWOGE app should be available for this, where repairs can be ordered, for example. It is particularly important to us to help shape the app so that it is as customer-friendly as possible.

Keyword communication: What would you like to convey?

We are there to carry important information to the tenants. This also includes the topics of housing exchange and WBS application. In our opinion, many tenants are not aware that this option exists. Even the HOWOGE managing director Mr. Schiller confirmed at our first meeting that many tenants are actually entitled to a WBS, but do not know it. I think you can't stop communicating that. Maybe this article will help you to reach someone again.

The tenants’ council answers questions about cross-district issuesby email, telephone or in person:

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