TAS produces a range of publications for residential tenants and those who work with tenants in WA. TAS has recently developed the TAS Web Site as an extension of the publications provision. The site was launched at the TAS AGM in October 1999 and all feedback to date has been overwhelmingly positive.
Each year TAS has around 10,000 unanswered calls to the TAS Advice Line that they are unable to respond to due to lack of resources. TAS hopes that the Web Site will provide access to information for at least some of the people who would ordinarily be attempting to access the advice line thus freeing up space on the advice line for target group tenants.
Whilst the technology is not accessible for all, there are some groups who TAS expect will utilise the site:
TAS hopes that the result will be a greater opportunity for the target groups of tenants to access the advice line and / or greater access for the general community to tenancy information.
Community Workers who assist tenants across WA will also be able to access information on line as well as a host of other services.
The site contains:
At this point TAS is unable to provide an e-mail advice service via the web site therefore the e-mail address is not published on the site. However within eight hours of the launch TAS received the first e-mail query from a tenant who must have deciphered the e-mail address from the domain name (he mentioned in his e-mail how much he liked the site). TAS is currently implementing a procedure of sending a standard response to those e-mails requesting that people requiring further information or advice contact the relevant service and explaining why e-mail advice cannot be provided.
The site was constructed by Nic Mayhew and Nic will continue to provide maintenance and updating. The graphics utilised on the site are those designed over the years for TAS by Rona Chadwick. The site was designed by TAS Community Legal Education Worker Lanie Chopping.
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