COVID-19 Business Continuity Plans

As news of the Coronavirus pandemic continues to evolve, we thought it necessary to publish details of the precautions that we are taking to address the spread of the virus and the potential impact to our clients, customers and contractors.

Communication

We have provided our employees with full access to our property management and phone systems which they can access remotely. The existing landline number continues to operate as normal, however, there may be a slight delay in the calls being answered. We will endeavour, however, to take your call as soon as possible.

The receiving and sending of postal correspondence has severe limitations and to ensure a more rapid response, please could you use email whenever possible.

Email correspondence will be dealt with in accordance with our usual processes.

Property Management

Where possible, normal service in respect of repairs and maintenance will remain in place. The safety of the communal areas of the building is an absolute priority of Together Property Management. This includes regular testing of equipment essential to the buildings, for example fire alarms, emergency lighting, etc.

Our Maintenance Office staff are available to take maintenance requests via phone, email or via the Customer Portal.

Where possible contractors will be instructed to attend site, however, with the guidance that is currently in place many contractors are only attending in case of emergency. We shall endeavour to arrange attendance to as many reported issues as possible, subject to the availability of contractors.

We are currently unable to send keys out to contractors and therefore, should you feel that the maintenance issue is urgent enough to require attendance, we will require you to provide access to the property for the contractor.

Cleaning services are expected to continue at properties as long as the contractors agree to continue to attend. Where the cleaning contractor advises that they are suspending services, we shall write to leaseholders accordingly.

Contractors are requested to keep up to date with the advice issued by the Government and the World Health Organisation in respect of the appropriate precautions to protect the health and wellbeing of their staff and of our customers and their tenants.

Our out of hours service continues to be available, details of which are available in our FAQs.

Property Inspections

We will continue our property inspections and these will be limited to the external areas and the fabric of the building. This will ensure that there are no significant issues that may give rise to future costs.

Given that it will be largely unknown to us which properties/customers are self-isolating or experiencing symptoms, we have taken the decision to limit the scope of our inspections to the external areas only.

Please report any issues within the internal common parts of your property to the maintenance office as soon as possible in order to get these addressed.

Major Works

We are currently reviewing the position of all our ongoing major works projects. Where it is possible for us to postpone the works, such as the case of internal redecorations, then we will look to do so.

We will be unable to postpone works that are necessary such as those concerning health and safety aspects. This may be the case if they are as a result of a Fire Risk or General Risk Assessment. Also, external redecorations addressing significant defects in the building such as roof works needed to stop water ingress to the building etc.

These works will need to continue as we have an obligation to provide you with a safe environment to live and/or failure to attend to these issues will lead to further degradation of the building and increased costs at a later date.

If postponing the works is a possibility, our Major Works Team will write to you directly. Please note the property service charge account will be liable for any costs incurred to date as well as any cancellation costs. It is possible that project costs such as materials/labour could increase should a peak in demand arise in the future. This is particularly relevant if the works are significantly delayed resulting in a materially increased scope of works.

Service Charge & Ground Rent Collection

Our accounts operations will continue as normal. We shall endeavour to issue payment requests and appropriate notices to you as and when they fall due.

Payments can continue to be made via bank transfer (details of which will be provided with the payment request), the Customer Portal or over the telephone to our Accounts Team.

Our Credit Control Team will be able to guide customers that are financially impacted by the current pandemic and should you have any concerns, we urge you to contact us by phone or email as soon as possible to discuss options.

Summary

These are incredibly challenging times and we shall continue to provide a service in line with the conditions stated above. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. If you have any questions, please get in touch. Stay safe and healthy.

Tim Roberts
Director

Specialist
Property
Management

Open and responsive approach

Friendly and professional service