How Do They View Us? (2)

When the housing association ceased to manage the council stock and became our landlord, along with the new tenancy agreement we were provided with a tenants' handbook.

This handbook informs us that we are responsible for paying the utility bills and various other glaringly obvious facts. But the best part of the handbook is an explanation of how to report a repair complete with simple illustrations. One that sticks in my mind is an illustration of a gate which we are informed is called a "gate" complete with a "latch" and "hinges".

I fell foul of the acceptable terminology when I rang earlier this year to report that a light switch in the sitting room was shorting, every time I used the words "sitting room" I was corrected with the words "front room", tempting though it was I really couldn't be bothered to inform the call centre operator that our front room is actually at the back of the property.

Few, if any, English-speaking tenants need to have the names of simple everyday objects spelled out to them. I can't decide if this and other publications we receive from the housing association are aimed at the lowest common denominator or based on an assumption that we are all uneducated, intellectually impaired and unable to function without their guidance.

The quarterly newsletter doesn't make the rationale behind the style of language or content of the publications we receive any clearer. We are routinely lectured about debt, the need to pay our rent, the consequences of anti-social behaviour and what the housing association is doing about it, not a lot in my experience, and, to add insult to injury, we were subjected to series of articles telling us how to clean our homes.

At least the quarterly newsletter affords my family some amusement when I read selected articles to them in an appropriately patronising voice over the phone.