At Care Housing Association we prioritise the safety of our staff, tenants and their friends and support staff ahead of everything else. At the same time, we want to deliver the best services possible to ensure our homes are happy and safe places to live. Following the latest Government announcement, we will be amending our services as follows, effective from 5th November – 2nd December 2020:
- Repairs to carry on as normal – Our repairs contractors are able to carry out repairs visits as normal, as per the Government guidance. However, if tenants do not feel comfortable having contractors in their homes, we will not carry out anything other than emergency and compliance related repairs. Tenants can still report repairs in the same way and any routine repairs can be logged for a future date (after 2nd December) through discussion with the contractor.
- Repairs to White Goods – White goods repairs are being carried out across all our properties, where requested and where we provide this service. Response times may vary.
- Grounds Maintenance – Continues as normal.
- Water testing – Hydraclean, our water treatment and testing contractor, is still operating as normal to ensure homes are safe and free of legionella.
- Housing Inspections – Unless there is an urgent reason for your housing officer to visit you (for example, to deal with a serious complaint of anti-social behaviour), we will be suspending visits until 2nd December.
- Tenancy sign-ups – to continue as normal where it is safe to do so.
Our staff and contractors will comply with the government guidance around working in people’s homes – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/homes
We are sensitive to the needs of our tenants and so if you have any concerns regarding people entering your homes, please call us on 0345 437 7367 to discuss this further. We understand that people may get anxious or nervous about others entering their homes and we will work with you to come to a solution.
To reiterate, we will only seek access to our properties for emergency repairs and compliance-related work (for example, to carry out an annual gas check) until 2nd December 2020, but we will continue to provide our normal service (subject to Covid-safety guidelines) if tenants wish to use it.
This guidance is subject to change and you will be informed if any further changes are to be made.
Matthew Eddisford
Chief Executive